HENRY HILL GOODELL 

THE STORY OF HIS LIFE 

WITH LETTERS AND A FEW OF HIS 
ADDRESSES 



BY 

CALVIN STEBBINS 



CAMBRIDGE 

PRINTED AT THE RIVERSIDE PRESS 

1911 



/>? 



c^X'\ 



COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY CALVIN STEBBINS 



©CI.A297834 



TO 
JOHN GOODELL AND WILLIAM GOODELL 

SONS OP PRESIDENT OOODELIi 

AND TO 

WILLIAM SEYMOUR TYLER 

CORNELIUS BOARDMAN TYLER 

CHARLES DICKINSON 

AND 

EDWARD RITTENHOUSE HOUGHTON 

SONS OF HIS LIFE-LONG PEIENDS 

THIS STORY OF A STRENUOUS LIFE 

IS AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED 



INTRODUCTION 

In preparing this sketch of the hfe of President Goodell 
it has been the author's aim to make it as far as possible 
autobiographical. The letters written during the Civil 
War are a soldier's letters, written by camp-fires, amid the 
confusion of army hfe, and sometimes with the booming of 
great guns ringing in his ears. They are printed as he left 
them, without correction, omitting personal and family 
matters of no interest to the public. The letters are some- 
times arranged so as to appear Uke a diary, but he did not 
keep a diary. He wrote to his friends of what was going 
on around him; he has very httle to say of matters that did 
not come under his personal observation. 

President Goodell was very careless about his manu- 
scripts and seems to have looked upon them as of tempo- 
rary value; and except the addresses and papers which 
found their way into print, only a few out of many have 
been preserved. Those printed in this volume are se- 
lected as illustrative of the tone of his mind and his method 
of handling the subjects he studied. It will be pleasing to 
those to whom they were addressed to read his farewells 
to the graduating classes. 

It will be impossible to mention all the friends who have 
contributed to this story. It is suflScient to say that Mrs. 
Helen E. Goodell has been untiring in collecting material 
illustrative of the work and character of her husband. 
The sons of the late Colonel Mason W. Tyler of Plainfield, 



vi INTRODUCTION 

N. J., have kindly loaned letters addressed to their father; 
many thanks are due to M. F. Dickinson, Esq., of Boston, 
for letters, papers, and valuable suggestions. Major Thomas 
McManus of the 25th Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers 
and the Honorable William R. Sessions, for many years 
Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, 
have contributed important facts, one in regard to the 
soldier, the other in regard to the affairs of the College. 
Professor William P. Brooks and Professor George F. Mills, 
for many years associated with President Goodell in the 
Faculty of the College, have been very kind in furnish- 
ing information of great value on important subjects; and 
many of the graduates of the College have contributed 
interesting incidents and characterizations. 



CONTENTS 

MEMOIR 

I. Youth 1 

n. Soldier 12 

III. Educator 79 

IV. Conclusion 134 

ADDRESSES 

How THE Pay of a Regiment was carried to New 
Orleans 155 

The Channel Islands and their Agriculture . . .172 

Reminiscences of the Orient 194 

The Influence of the Monks in Agriculture .... 228 

The Massachusetts Agricultural College .... 254 

Relation of the State Board of Agriculture to 
THE Massachusetts Agricultural College . . . 268 

Address before the Association of American Agri- 
cultural Colleges and Experiment Stations . . 284 



viii CONTENTS 
What should be taught in our Colleges of Agri- 
culture . , 295 

Report of the Executive Committee, Twelfth Con- 
vention, 1898 304 

Report of the Executive Committee, Fifteenth Con- 
vention, 1901 309 

Address to the Senior Class, 1887 314 

Address to the Graduating Class, 1888 316 

Address to the Senior Class, 1890 319 

Captain Walter Mason Dickinson, U. S. A 322 



MEMOIR 



Bright wits and instinct sure, 
And goodness warm, and truth without alloy. 

And temper sweet, and love of all things pure. 
And joy in the light, and power to spread the joy. 



HENKY HILL GOODELL 



I 

YOUTH 

The family name of Goodell appears in the Colonial Re- 
cords and in the Record of the soldiers who enlisted from 
Massachusetts during the Revolution, in some twenty- 
different forms, Goodale and Goodell taking the lead. The 
stock from which Henry Hill Goodell sprang was of the 
genuine Puritan type, robust, healthy, brave, earnest, 
and religious. The first settler of the name in New England 
was Robert Goodale, who with his wife Katharin and three 
children, "Mary four years old, Abraham two, and Isaac 
one half," embarked at Ipswich, England, in the ship 
Elizabeth on April 10, 1634, and came to Salem, where he 
soon established himself among those who were called 
"the genteel." Before leaving England both he and his wife 
took a solemn oath to be loyal subjects of his Majesty, 
King Charles I. But while his descendants did not remain 
loyal to the English throne, they apparently clung to their 
Puritanism. Of the eighty or more Goodales or Goodells 
who served as soldiers in the Revolution, all but seven were 
named after the lawgivers, the warriors, the singers and 
prophets of Israel, or the evangelists, disciples and writers 
of the New Testament. 



2 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

His grandfather, William Goodell, a soldier in the Re- 
volution, one of the seven of his "kith and kin" in the 
army, who did not have a name borrowed from the Scrip- . 
tures, was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts, July 9, 
1757, spent most of his active life in Templeton, Massa- 
chusetts, and died July 4, 1843, at Copley, Ohio. He had 
a family of ten children, of whom William, the father of 
Henry Hill, was the second child and first son. This Wil- 
liam seems to have inherited all the pluck and grit of his 
race. He was a man of great practical wisdom and of cour- 
age that never failed. His father was not able to help him 
in his ambition to acquire an education, but he contrived 
to fit for college, to graduate at Dartmouth in 1817, to study 
theology at Andover, and then devoted his life to the work 
of a missionary, and for forty years worked in the Otto- 
man Empire. Turkey was then a frontier position, and his 
trials came not "in single spears, but in fierce battalions." 
The enumeration of his trials and perils by the first great 
missionary of the Christian faith to his disciples at Corinth 
is almost equaled by those endured by William Goodell. He 
suffered from fire and flood, from plague and pestilence, 
from the bigotry of the Greek Church, and lived in hourly 
expectation of an outburst of Moslem fanaticism; yet he 
stood to his post and did his work bravely and well. 

He saw the humorous side of life and enjoyed it. His 
humor was spontaneous and came out as oddly as a Puri- 
tan quoted Scripture. "His sense of humor," says Dr. 
Jessup, "was refreshing, bubbling over all on occasions 
and sparkling even in the darkest hour of persecution and 
tribulation." ^ Dr. Hamlin, as quoted by Dr. Jessup, says 
1 Fifty-three Years in Syria, i, 47. 



YOUTH 3 

of him: "His wit and mirthfulness made perpetual sun- 
shine." 

The first account we have of Henry Hill is in a letter of 
his father to a friend announcing his birth. The quaint 
humor, mingled with a fervent yet anxious piety, is charm- 
ing, and will throw a side-light on the character of the man. 

"On the 20th inst. a new missionary joined us. He came 
without a partner, and without any outfit; and, as is usual 
with all newcomers, he boards for the present in my family, 
till he shall become acquainted with the language and cus- 
toms of the country; so that, what with his entire ignorance, 
and what with his entire dependence on us for even his 
ordinary clothing, we are full of business these days. In 
other words, a week ago yesterday morning, a third son 
and seventh child was added to my family; and we pray 
that they all may be like the seven lamps, which burn for- 
ever before the throne of God. I had looked forward to this 
event with more than ordinary anxiety, but the Lord was 
better to us than our fears, and instead of diminishing our 
numbers hath added thereto; and if Job could say, 'Blessed 
be the name of the Lord,' how much more should we ! 'He 
hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us ac- 
cording to our iniquities,' 

"The children have looked through the whole Old and 
New Testament, with all history, ancient and modern, 
for a name, but without success. This, however, is not our 
greatest trouble. Our principal concern is, that he may 
have that new name which no man knoweth, save he that 
receiveth it; and that his name, whatever it may be, 
may be written in Heaven. May the day of his death be 
better than the day of his birth ! " 



4 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

He was born at fifteen minutes past twelve on the morn- 
of May 20, 1839; and was christened, three days later, 
Henry Hill. 

The family ultimately consisted of nine children: four 
sisters and two brothers older than himself and a brother 
and a sister younger. When three years old, he lost a brother 
eight years older, and he survived all the family but a sister 
next older and a sister next younger, than himself. The 
ties of blood were very strong in him, and his position in 
the family, with older and younger brothers and sisters, 
was a fortunate one for the development of the peculiar 
relations that really constitute the family, which, as Emer- 
son says, " makes a man love no music so well as his kitchen 
clock." 

During his early teens the Crimean War broke out, and 
Constantinople became the centre of interest to the whole 
western world. The soldiers of three great nations, England, 
France and Sardinia, in their various uniforms, together 
with the great warships and innumerable transports hurry- 
ing to the scene of conflict, left an impression on his mind 
that years did not efface. He saw most of the great comman- 
ders, both of the land and sea forces, and beyond this many 
of the diplomats representing many nations and distin- 
guished visitors from the West. It is related that one day 
he heard that Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was going to call 
on his father, and running home he rushed into the room 
without noticing that any one was there and burst out: 
"Papa, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe is coming to call on 
you." — "My son," said the father, "Lord Stratford de 
Redcliffe is already here," introducing him to the dis- 
tinguished caller. The great ambassador, whom Tennyson 



YOUTH 5 

describes on his monument in Westminster Abbey as "the 
voice of England in the East," put his hand on the Httle 
fellow's head and gave him the patriarchial blessing. 

His letters to his brother William, who had come to this 
country to study for his profession and who had begun the 
practice of medicine, were full of war news and the doings 
of soldiers. Dec. 19, 1853, he writes from Constantino- 
ple, giving an account of the beginning of the war: — 

My dear brother William, — May your shadow never 
be less and may you soon have plenty of patients, — not that 
I wish folks might get sick, but that you might have practice. 

A week or two ago the Turks and the Russians had a 
naval engagement in which the Turks were utterly defeated. 
The circumstances were these: 13 of the Turkish fleet, 
mostly small vessels, went up into the Black Sea for a 
cruise; they came to Sinopi and anchored there for a few 
days, and not apprehending any danger they took no pre- 
cautions in case of a surprise. Well a Russian steamer saw 
them and went off and brought down upon them eight of 
the largest-sized Russian vessels. The vessels came in with 
a strong wind in their favour and immediately opened upon 
the Turks with red-hot shot. The Turks tried to get out 
of the way so as to let the battery from the town play on 
the enemy, but did not succeed, and every one of them ex- 
cept a steamer was either blown up or sunk. This steamer 
managed to get up her steam and slipt out in the midst of 
the action; she was pursued by R. steamers, but she used 
her stem guns upon them and when they came too near 
she would turn and give them a broadside, and thus she 
escaped, but in a somewhat shattered condition. 



6 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

An English merchantman, which was lying up there at 
the time of the engagement, was sunk and two of her crew 
killed. Immediately upon hearing the news here, an Eng- 
lish and a French steamer of war were despatched up with 
surgeons and bandages and medicine for the soldiers who 
survived. As soon as the battle was over, the Russians 
hoisted sail and went off. The Greeks (the little rascals) 
at Sinopi were so delighted at the issue of the battle that 
they hoisted the Russian flag; this so exasperated the Turks 
that they went and burned down all their quarters. 

May 27, 1854, he writes: "Last week Friday we went to 
the 'Sweet Waters' of Europe; almost all the great folks 
were there. Of the latter there were, the American, English, 
French, Dutch, Persian, and Austrian ambassadors; there 
was also the Duke of Cambridge, Lord Raglan, Prince Na- 
poleon, and plenty of English officers." 

June 10: "I have been to the review — it took place 
last week. The Sultan was there to see them, the High- 
landers were there, they were really beautiful, and when 
they marched before the Sultan they played on their bag- 
pipes; the music was very fine and the cavalry ecUpsed 
everything; even one of the generals said so. The music 
was splendid, they played 'God save the King and Queen,' 
the 'Sultan's March,' 'Scots wha hae,' and several others." 

Henry did not attend school in Constantinople, but 
studied at home. In English, mathematics and literature, 
his sisters were his teachers. He studied Latin with his 
father, Greek with his father's Greek translator of the New 
Testament, and history was read every night and questions 
were asked about it at the breakfast table the next morn- 



YOUTH 7 

ing. French he picked up in the street, as it was the lan- 
guage commonly spoken. 

But his parents were too wise to continue this method 
long. The growing boy must have more air and a larger 
world. Accordingly, at the age of seventeen, "a tender age," 
as he used to say, he left Constantinople, July 30, 1856, in 
company with an older sister, in the Race Horse, a sailing 
vessel, and after a voyage of sixty-seven days arrived in 
New York, October 5. 

He went immediately to Williston Seminary, Easthamp- 
ton, and for the first year studied with both the Junior and 
the Middle Classes and graduated with the class of 1858, 
doing the work of three years in two. In the Seminary he 
was very quiet, did nothing to attract attention, seemed to 
have few friends, or even acquaintances, and was almost 
unknown to those who became at once on entering college 
his companions, and lifelong friends after college days had 
become a matter of the past. He was looked upon as a 
hard-working student. Perhaps in the minds of some of 
his fellow-students there was a certain mystery about him, 
born as he was in a strange land, under a strange civiliza- 
tion, and so far from friends and home. And then the new- 
ness of the new world may have had a repressing influence 
upon him. 

He entered Amherst College in the fall of 1858, and was 
graduated with the class of 1862. In college the real man 
came to the front, with a large percentage of the boy. He 
found friends everywhere, — in his own class, in the higher 
classes and among the Faculty. He was always good- 
natured, always cheerful, at times rollicking, and ready to 
take a hand in any good fun or practical joke. He was still 



8 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

a worker, maintained a good standard of scholarship, read 
a good deal and to the purpose, and when the time came, 
took up one study that was to be a great service to him in 
after life, the study of botany. During the Freshman year 
he accepted an invitation to become a member of the Psi 
Upsilon Fraternity. The spirit of Fraternity seems to have 
been in accord with his nature, as he took a personal inter- 
est, not only in his associate members but in the new mem- 
bers, long after he left college. 

During the last years of his college life the great storm 
that had long been gathering burst suddenly upon the 
country. By a cannon shot in the harbor of Charleston, 
South Carolina, the gredt issue between free and slave labor, 
involving the preservation of the Union, was brought into 
the court of last resort. In this great contest, which grew 
greater as it went on, until it assumed proportions perhaps 
up to that time unsurpassed in the history of mankind, 
Goodell took a deep interest. It seemed to him to involve 
the highest interests of civilization and all that he held dear. 
He said but httle, but evidently thought a great deal as to 
his duty. The following letter addressed to his brother-in- 
law, Mr. James Bird of Hartford, Connecticut, will give 
his own account of his feehngs. It was written more than 
five months after the Massachusetts troops went through 
Baltimore, and two months after the first battle of Bull 
Run, which General Sherman declared "one of the best- 
planned battles of the war, but one of the worst fought." 
He had had plenty of time to think. 



YOUTH 9 

Amherst, Sept. 30, 1861. 

My dear James, — I want to ask your advice on a sub- 
ject I have been thinking on very strongly the past weeks, 
viz : the advisabiUty of my going to the war. The ques- 
tion has come home so strongly to me that I feel as if I must 
decide it one way or another immediately. It 's no use at- 
tempting to study while in such a state of indecision. Be- 
lieve me, this is no sudden question that has come up in 
my mind. It has scarcely been out of my thoughts since 
returning here this term. Within the past few weeks we have 
bade God speed to a dozen or more college-mates, who have 
gone to assume honorable positions in our regiments now 
forming, and I suppose during the present week some six or 
seven more will leave. It 's the very life-blood of the Col- 
lege we are sending; some of our best and noblest men. 
The other morning a letter was read to the College from 
Governor Andrew, strongly advising us not to enlist as 
privates, but if we could get commissions, to go, stating 
that the great want of our armies is officers of intelligence 
to take the lead and direct. Now, James, the question 
that arises is this. Here I have been drilling, and have 
drilled men, for the past three months, and ought I to stay 
here, when perhaps I can be of service to my country? I 
am not thoroughly posted, and don't pretend to be, but 
I feel confident that I know more than one-half the officers 
that are being accepted. Why, in Colonel Lee's regiment 
now encamped at Springfield, except the Colonel, Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel and Major, there is not a single officer besides 
our College boys that knows anything about modern 
tactics, and it is our fellows that are drilling the men. As 
Governor Andrew says, there are not officers enough found 



10 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

for the troops. I have had a lieutenant's position offered 
me, but declined it, as I could not give any immediate 
answer. It is hard to tell what is one's duty to do. The 
faculty are very much adverse to the students' leaving, but 
then on the other hand, the minister here, and other persons 
in whose judgment I place the strongest confidence, urge 
their going. A company left Amherst the other day, and 
when I saw husbands leaving their wives and children, it 
fairly stirred every particle of blood in my veins, and made 
me feel as ashamed as could be to be staying at home, 
when there was no one in the world dependent upon me. 
Don't think that I am fired with ambition or glory or any- 
thing of the sort. An officer's position is a dangerous one, 
and I chng too tenaciously to life and its pleasures to rashly 
throw mine away. No such motive I assure you influences 
me. I have not yet written to Mr. Robert, but shall await 
replies from you and William [his brother], to whom I 
write by this same mail, before sending to him. If you and 
he think favorably of this, I shall hold myself in readiness 
for whatever may turn up. 

Please write me as soon as convenient. Perhaps you had 
better not say anything about this to Eliza [his sister] and 
the rest of the family just at present, as it will only worry 
them. Your aff. brother, 

Henry. 

From this letter it appears that he had made up his mind 
as to his duty. His friends, however, thought he had bet- 
ter complete his college course; and he reluctantly yielded 
to their wishes, and gave increased attention to gymnastics 
and military drill, which he afterwards said was of great 



YOUTH 11 

advantage to him. At the time of his graduation the cause 
of the Union was under a dark cloud. During the last of 
June, 1862, even the President of the United States did 
not know for days where the Army of the Potomac was. 
The gloom was deep but the people were not discouraged. 
At the request of the governors of eighteen loyal states 
President Lincoln, on July 2, called out three hundred 
thousand men for three years, and on August 4 ordered 
a draft for three hundred thousand men for nine months. 



II 

SOLDIER 

On leaving College Goodell opened, on July 23, 1862, 
a recruiting office in the City of New York; but his ex- 
pectations did not materialize. He informed a friend that 
most of the men who called at his office came to see how 
he was getting along, or to sell him something that would 
be indispensable to him in campaigning. Only once did he 
feel sure of a recruit, but the feeling lasted only a moment. 
With all the patriotic enthusiasm and power of persuasion 
he possessed, he worked one fellow up to consent to enlist; 
"but when the papers were brought out he declined to 
sign that day, and when he left he threw down a card on 
which was written: 'If you want a good wife, 1st. Keep 
a good conscience; 2nd. Pay your honest debts; 3rd. Pur- 
chase your shirts at 263 Broadway ' ; remarking as he evac- 
uated, 'That is my business'; and was followed by 'You 
stupid blockhead ! you infamous wretch ! ' or words to that 
effect." 

Abandoning the scheme of raising a company in New 
York, he went to Hartford and enlisted August 16 in the 
25th Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers, then forming 
under Colonel George P.Bissell,for a service of nine months, 
and was appointed second lieutenant in Company F. It 
was the smallest company in the regiment and was chris- 
tened by the other soldiers "Napheys's Brigade," in honor 



SOLDIER 13 

of the captain, George H. Napheys. The regiment was 
mustered into the service of the United States November 
11, and three days later sailed from Hartford to Centre- 
ville on Long Island, the rendezvous of an expedition to be 
commanded by Major-General N. P. Banks, destination 
unknown. 

There is no place that reveals the real character of a man 
so quickly and so clearly as a shelter tent in an army in 
the field. All there is in him, be it noble or base, strong 
or weak, is brought to the front by the peculiar experiences 
of the soldier. This test Goodell could stand, and it has 
been said by one who had a good opportunity to know, that 
"he was, from first to last, a favorite with every officer and 
private in the regiment." This means that he was the same 
in the field that he was before he left the state, and that he 
made himself respected as a disciplinarian because he was 
one. No private under his command could make the com- 
plaint of Birdofredum Sawin: — 

I don't approve of tellin' tales, but just to you I may state 
Our ossifers ain't wut they wuz afore they left the Bay-State. 

The experiences of life in a camp of instruction are tedi- 
ous and wearisome, but when a regiment starts for the field 
under a government not prepared for war and unused to 
handling and providing for large bodies of men, the real 
trials of the soldier begin. Even under these circumstances, 
however, his cheerfulness did not desert him. When the 
regiment arrived at the camp at Centreville after a march 
of about ten miles, they found that no provision had been 
made for them, and it was the last of November. The next 
morning he writes that he "slept in the guard-house on the 



14 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

bare floor, with nothing under him but his blankets, and in 
the small hours of the morning he ran a mile on the race- 
course to get warm." 

The regiment was ordered to embark on November 29. 
In a letter written on the Atlantic Dock, Brooklyn, dated 
December 4, he gives an account of what had happened. 

Our regiment was to have left last Saturday, when lo, 
just as we were drawn up in battle-line preparatory to a 
start, General Banks's orderly gallops up and brings an 
order for Go's. C, D, F, and G to remain behind and go 
with the 26th [Connecticut]. Here was a pretty go, for 
tents, baggage and everything had already gone! We in- 
stantly sent down to the depot for them, but they had al- 
ready gone. To add to our troubles, up came one of the 
hea\'iest rain-storms, such as Long Island only can pro- 
duce. As there was no other place, we all went into the 
guard-house, and there have we been lying ever since 
on the hard boards; not even a wisp of straw did we have 
till Tuesday, for it was so wet we could not bring it. The 
26th boys were very kind and accommodated a whole 
company. We ofBcers were not so well off as the privates, 
for we did not have our blankets with us. Yesterday I was 
sent down here with a guard to take care of our baggage, 
which is lying piled upon the dock. It was bitter cold last 
night, but we managed to keep comfortable in some empty 
R.R. cars that were convenient. The regiment received 
marching orders last night and I expect them down every 
minute to embark on the Empire City with the 26th Ct. 
The rest of the regiment, or rather five companies, sailed 
in the Mary Boardman, day before yesterday morning, 



SOLDIER 15 

and so crowded that part of the men are compelled to stay- 
on the upper deck. 

Good-bye, all hands, with ever so much love to all. 

Henby. 

P. S. I 've found out where our expedition is going. It 's 
going to sea. One thing is certain — we are going pretty 
far South. 

There was considerable confusion and much delay in 
getting oflf. Some of the transports were so crowded that 
the captains refused to sail. Part of the remaining com- 
panies of the 25th were taken on board the Che Kiang. 
Goodell, with one hundred and twenty men of his regiment, 
sailed from New York December 18, in the Merrimac, 
with fifteeen hundred troops on board. The passage down 
the Atlantic coast was very rough, the machinery of the 
ship was disabled, and they were obliged to put into Hilton 
Head for repairs. From here he writes December 27 to 
a classmate a very realistic account of his experience. 

"You would have laughed the first day, could you have 
seen the guards of the vessel from stem to stern lined with 
anxious sea-gazers, their knees knocking together, their 
countenances ashen, and a very intimate connection evi- 
dently existing between the stomach and the mouth. Even 
my risibles were excited, though myself not entirely in- 
sensible to the attractions of Neptune. Thou hast heard, 
friend of my soul, of that unhappy man mentioned in the 
Holy Writ, who had seven women hanging to the skirts of 
his coat; but his condition was not a circumstance to be 
compared to that of the unfortunate Quartermaster and 



16 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Commissary of this ship, your humble servant in propria 
persona. Each day I growl and say, 'Oh, men, why will 
you eat so much? ' Over three thousand pounds of rations 
do I have to issue from that hold each day. It is no small 
job, with the vessel pitching everything hilter skilter, to get 
provisions up; and I assure you it is very disturbing to the 
equanimity of my temperature and requireth great nerve 
and presence of stomach to go below into the bowels of 
the ship and hear some hundred or two puking above you. 
Occasionally, I grieve to relate, I get disembowelled in the 
operation. Hilton Head is the most God-forsaken, misera- 
ble old hole yours respectfully ever got into. The sand is 
ankle-deep everywhere, and such a lot of negroes, — shift- 
less, lazy dogs, black as the ace of spades and twice as 
natural. But the little nigs kill me outright. Excepting a 
young elephant I know of nothing so comical. I can sit 
half the morning looking at them and hearing them jabber. 
We expect to sail to-night or to-morrow morning; but I 
must close as I have a chance to send this ashore." 

The Merrimac did not reach New Orleans until some 
days after the arrival of the other transports. Part of his 
regiment went immediately up the river to Baton Rouge, 
and part of it was left at New Orleans. On the arrival 
of the Merrimac, Goodell was employed in superintend- 
ing the unlading of the ship, and had a very definite im- 
pression that the "Native Brethren" did not like the "New 
Massa"; for his ideas of a day's work were very different 
from those to which they had been accustomed. He had 
time, however, to visit many places in the city. He was 
attracted to the slave-market, and noticed the signs of the 
various dealers in human chattels. He made an excursion 



SOLDIER 17 

to Fort Jackson, — rowed, or rode, over the country for 
fifteen miles. He had an exquisitely fine sympathy with 
vegetable life in all its forms and especially with trees, 
and the country charmed him. "I wish you could see the 
orange and lemon groves," he writes, "with the trees per- 
fectly bowed down with their weight of fruit. Such oranges ! 
Citrons almost as large as my head and lemons as would 
make the heart of a thrifty house-wife rejoice. Upon my 
word, I am in love with the sunny South. Don't be as- 
tonished if, finding my affinity, you should hear that 
Gibraltar had surrendered and I had settled down for life." 

But he was not likely to find an assailant of his fortress 
among the then inhabitants of New Orleans. He writes: 
"The ladies wore 'secesh' cockades in their bonnets. Oh, 
but it was amusing to see the curl of the lip and the un- 
pleased nose with which they would sweep by us. Of course 
I used my privilege of staring them full in the face." He 
was master of a pecuUar facial expression of a serio-comic 
character, which he may have used, but he never had any 
success with what he called, "my bran-new, two-for-a- 
quarter smile." 

The object of the expedition was to cooperate with 
General Grant in the reduction of Vicksburg. But General 
Banks did not know until he arrived at New Orleans that 
Port Hudson was fortified and manned by almost as large 
a force as he could bring against it, or that fifty miles or 
so west of New Orleans was a force of five or six thousand 
men ready to move on the city and cut his lines of communi- 
cation the moment he moved up the river. In addition to 
this, he was furnished with transportation for only one 
division of his army, and a letter from General Grant was 



18 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

forty days en route. There was only one thing that could 
be done, and that was to destroy the Confederate army 
west of the Mississippi, before he could with safety leave 
New Orleans in his rear and advance on Port Hudson. 
So, concentrating his army at Donaldsonville, he marched 
across the country to Berwick Bay and followed up the 
Bayou Teche to Alexandria on the Red River; then, follow- 
ing down the Red River to the Mississippi, he advanced 
upon Port Hudson from the North. The story of this long 
march with its various vicissitudes will be given in Good- 
ell's letters to one of his sisters, with an occasional note to 
classmates, to illustrate the spirit with which he endured 
the trials of an exceedingly tedious and fatiguing campaign. 

On the 15th of January, 1863, the companies of the 25th 
Connecticut at New Orleans were sent up the river to Baton 
Rouge, and joining their old companions, were brigaded 
with the 13th Connecticut, the 26th Maine and the 159th 
New York, under Colonel H. W. Birge as brigade com- 
mander. These regiments formed the Third Brigade of 
the Fourth Division of the 19th Army Corps, General 
Grover division commander. 

They were now in the presence of the enemy, and the 
position assigned to the 25th was on the extreme left in 
advance, and Goodell gets his first taste of active service. 
On January 26, he writes from Baton Rouge : — 

"Our camp is about half a mile from the town, just on the 
edge of a dense forest and cypress swamp. Last night I went 
out for the first time on picket duty, with forty-five men. 
Had fifteen posts to look after, extending over some mile 
and a half through the centre of the forest. It was no joke, 
I assure you, going the rounds all night visiting the posts, 



SOLDIER 19 

for it was dark as a pocket, and I lost my way quite a 
number of times and would wander hither and thither, 
stumbHng over vines and branches, till some sentinel 
would bring me up with a round turn, with a click of his 
musket-lock and 'Who goes there?'" 

In closing the letter he could not help adding: "Tell 
Mrs. B. that her nephew has improved so wonderfully in 
camp morals that he actually told me he thought if he 
could get a good chance to hook a hen, he should do it." 

In a letter to a classmate written January 27, he made a 
few additions to the story of his first night on picket. 

The woods are plentifully stocked with game and we 
^30uld hear most every sound, from the hooting of owls and 
rooting of wild hogs to the snarl of the wild-cat and cry 
of the possum. You should see the vines that encircle 
the trees or festoon from tree to tree. Some of them are 
gigantic, as large round as my body, and their folds look 
like the coils of an immense snake. The smaller vines are 
so pliable you can twist and tie them like a rope. I slept 
an hour or two under a magnolia tree while my sergeant 
kept watch. You can't think how tough I am getting. I 
lie down on the ground with nothing but my overcoat on, 
and using a log for a pillow sleep very comfortably. Adieu, 
my pirate of the deep blue sea. 

Affectionately, 

YOUB BLOOMING DAFFODIL AND FRAGRANT 

PRIMROSE OF A SOUTHERN ClIME. 

For some weeks after the arrival of the regiment at 
Baton Rouge, the officers and men were busy with picket 



20 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

and guard-duty and acquiring the use of fire-arms, which 
they did not receive until after they arrived at New Or- 
leans. Goodell soon adjusted himself to the situation. He 
writes February 7: — 

"Everything is peaceful and quiet round here just now, 
but it's frightfully cold. It is very singular weather here. 
Just about so often we have a terrific rain-storm; when it 
clears off, it will be intensely cold for three or four days, 
then it will get unpleasantly hot and we have another 
storm to subdue it. I don't think that these changes agree 
with the men, for we have a large number on the sick-list. 
The officers' ranks are so reduced by resignation and sick- 
ness that, out of twenty lieutenants, we have only eight 
for duty; the consequence is we have to work like Trojans,* 
for every day we detail two lieutenants, one for picket and 
the other for guard. You would laugh to see me start out 
on picket. First I have my overcoat on, and my sword 
and fixings over that; then in my sling I carry my nine- 
pound woolen blanket and my rubber blanket; then I have 
my haversack with a day's rations, and lastly my canteen. 
Oh, but you ought to see some of my dishes that I get up. 
I should n't know how to name them, but they are luscious. 
The other day I managed to get hold of some codfish, and 
being in an experimenting frame of mind, made a delicious 
fry. Soaked the critter over night, and next morning threw 
the pieces into the frying-pan along with some pork; to this 
I added a little concentrated milk instead of butter. Then 
toasted some bread and poured the whole over it. Why, it 
was a dish fit for a king! We are lucky in being able to pro- 
cure bread now. At first we could get nothing but hard- 
tack. Fresh meat I have not tasted since we landed, till the 



SOLDIER 21 

other day, when out on picket, one of the men caught a 
young pig and forthwith flayed and roasted him. That same 
day, when on picket, a contraband brought us some fresh 
eggs and some sweet potatoes; but such instances are few 
and far between. Why, I became a nine-days' wonder on 
returning to camp and relating my experience." 

Hard as he worked, he seems to have enjoyed himself 
and got all the fun there was in the life he was living, and 
to have made some besides. On February 21 he writes to 
a classmate of a dream that carried him back to college 
days, and all the old boys were there and each had his own 
peculiar characteristics and the fun grew louder and louder, 
until he awoke to find his captain sitting up and wondering 
what had got into his usually staid and sober lieutenant. 

" With my elevation to my present elevated and highly 
honorable position I have acquired a dignity of mien and 
aldermanic rotundity of person highly gratifying to the 
beholder. But I will tell you what I do miss, and that is 
books. It would be a perfect luxury to get hold of some- 
thing readable occasionally. Here we have nothing but 
army tactics and regulations, a faithful study of which is 
daily enjoined, which are very good in their way, but 
not very improving to the mind. I'm flourishing like the 
owl of the desert and the pelican of the wilderness. My 
nocturnal excursions in Amherst dodging the professors 
have developed in me a strategical skill which will no doubt 
cause my military genius soon to be recognized. But me- 
thinks I hear you growl, 'What a cussed Goodell it is!' 
so I will just dry up." 



22 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Baton Rouge, Feb., 22, 1863. 

Beloved in Israel, — Again (thou art owing me an 
epistle) have I taken up my pen, this time to request thee 
to forward the enclosed to Calvin Stebbins. I hate, Dick, 
to have to send my letters franked as soldier's letters, but 
nary a stamp have I and nary a one can I buy on these 
benighted shores. 

I have just been drilling my men in a sad duty in re- 
versed arms and rest, a duty which we are having to per- 
form quite often nowadays. It is sad to see men stricken 
down in their strength by the fever; one by one they drop 
oflf, many of them without ever having had a sight of the 
enemy — poor fellows ! It is a sickening sight to go over 
the hospitals and see the parched and wasted sufferers, 
many of them stretched on the floor with only a blanket 
and scarce a comfort or luxury of any kind. 

Mortar and gun-boats are daily arriving at this port. 
We have six of the former and four or five of the latter. 
They are continually making reconnaissance up the river 
and occasionally give Port Hudson a touch of their balls, 
but most of them give her a wide berth. Oh, Dick, you ought 
to see us on our brigade drills! Such brilliant bayonet 
charges as we perform ! Your uncle whooping and yelling 
and waving his sword, men howling like so many Indians 
and tearing over the ground as if the old scratch were 
after them. It is exciting in the extreme, and it is just 
about as much as I can do to hold in from dashing ahead 
and cutting up my didoes. I verily believe that on a real 
charge, whatever else my feelings, I shall hold my own with 
the swiftest of them. Can't help it! It is so exciting! My 
blood gets regularly up in the seventh Heaven and I chafe 



SOLDIER 23 

like a mettlesome steed. Inbred sin will stick out and I am 
no exception. . . . 

By the way, Dick, I should be very much obliged to you 
if you would occasionally send me a weekly Springfield 
"Republican." Reading matter we have none, and when 
New York papers arrive they command 25 and 30 cents, so 
that we poor devils, who have not yet received a cent of 
pay, are forced to go without. You don't know what it is 
to be cut oflf from all communication with the outer world 
for a week or ten days at a time, and during that interval 
hear nothing but the discouraging rumors and reports in- 
dustriously circulated by the rebels. However, we are fast 
getting over our first refreshing verdure and are learning 
to disbelieve everything we hear. 

I am in a confoundedly cross state of mind to-day for 
ye following good and suflScient causes: 1st. I have just 
come off guard in a soaking rain, and though being neither 
sugar nor salt, have yet nearly melted away. 2nd. Having 
a prisoner consigned to my tender mercies to be fed on ye 
bread of affliction and ye waters of repentance until further 
orders, ye same prisoner did at ye dead hour of noon break 
in ye guard-house and abscond to his quarters, did there 
fare sumptuously on hard-tack and salt-horse; that this 
same coming to ye ears of ye colonel, he did up and sour 
on ye officer of ye guard, and sending him a pair of hand- 
cuffs did order forthwith to arrest ye delinquent and confine 
him in close quarters; that in ye performance of ye said 
duty a spirited encounter did there and thereupon take 
place, in which ye offender did get upset in one corner and 
ye officer very nearly in the other; that ye criminal, being 
finally secured, did create such a row, ye same was forced 



24 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

to be gagged and bound hand and foot. 3d. That ye weather 
hath proved unpropitious for several days, raining heavily 
when ye humble servant did hope to go round and view 
ye beauties of ye delicate upturned nose of Baton Rouge. 
4th. That ye three commissioned officers of Co. G not 
knowing better than to all fall sick at once and go to ye 
hospital, ye subscriber was immediately detailed to take 
charge and command of ye Co. to be obeyed and respected 
accordingly; an honor by no means congenial since being 
alone it bringeth many cares. That ye paymaster, that 
much-desired individual, hath again disappointed ye ex- 
pectants and left us, like Patience on ye monument, to 
regret ye continued absence of ye "root of all evil." 
6th. That ye reasons and ye causes multiply so fast we 
would fain subscribe ourselves in bonds of Auld Lang Syne. 
With lots of love to thyself, thy family and Sister Eben- 
ezer. Daddy, 

H, H. GoODELL. 

We had a division review ordered to-day but it has been 
countermanded. I wrote you and Furnald on the receipt 
of your letters, somewhere about the 12th of this month. 

But this camp-life was not to last. Admiral Farragut 
wished to run his fleet past the batteries of Port Hudson, 
that he might intercept the Red River traffic and cooperate 
with General Grant at Vicksburg; and he asked General 
Banks to make a demonstration behind the fortress. The 
movement was intended as a diversion. General Banks at 
once put his army in motion, and the 25th Connecticut, 
with a squadron of horse and a battery of regular artillery- 
men, commenced the advance on March 10. Five miles 



SOLDIER 25 

up the road from Baton Rouge they had a sharp skirmish 
with the enemy and found a bridge to build. Goodell was 
not one of those men who do not know what fear is, 
but he had moral strength to do his duty without regard 
to danger. " I was under fire," he writes, "for ten or fifteen 
minutes, the bullets zipping in the trees over my head. I 
flatter myself that my hair rose to a reasonable height 
on that occasion." 

The army came within cannon-shot of the Confederate 
works, but could not get their guns up in time to be of any 
service. But they were auditors and witnesses of a terri- 
ble scene. At 11.20 p.m., two rockets burst into the air, and 
in an instant all the guns of the fortress lit up the dark- 
ness with their flash. The fleet replied, and until 35 minutes 
after midnight the roar of one hundred and fifty guns was 
incessant. To add terror to the anxiety of the awful scene 
in the mind of the soldiers, "the U. S. Frigate Mississippi" 
grounded, and to save her from capture, she was fired 
in all parts, and when wrapped in flames that lit up the 
scene for miles around, went up with a terrific explosion in 
fragments to the sky. Goodell's account of this daring and 
brilhant affair has been lost. Farragut's Httle fleet for this 
desperate enterprise consisted of four ships and three gun- 
boats, which were lashed to the port side of the forward 
ships. But only the Hartford, which flew the Admiral's 
"dauntless blue," and her consort, the little Albatross, 
succeeded in running past the batteries. The other ships 
were disabled by the enemy's fire and dropped down the 
stream. The Mississippi, which had no consort, grounded, 
became a target for the enemy's guns, and to save the 
lives of her men was abandoned and fired. 



26 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

On the return march Goodell had a hard time. A heavy 
rain-storm flooded the country, and he writes from Baton 
Rouge on March 22: — 

"Once more back at our old camping-ground, black as 
Cherokee Indians, ragged as any old-clothesman, somewhat 
fatigued but still jolly, we resume the thread of our narra- 
tive and send you our salutations. On March 16, seven 
miles from Baton Rouge, on our retreat, we were encamped 
in a mud-puddle of pudding consistency. We managed to 
get some rails and dry oflf in the sun, though I was so well 
soaked it took me nearly all day to get thoroughly dried. 
Towards noon, Billy Wilson's Zou-Zous hove in sight, his 
white nanny goat marching at the head of his brigade as 
complacently as you please. This goat he brought with him 
from New York, and it has accompanied him in all his 
marches, always stalking along in advance of the column. 
At 3 P.M., we fell into line and marched one and one half 
miles to the banks of the Mississippi, where we encamped 
on a cotton plantation. It was about as pleasant a place 
as I have been in in Louisiana, on a high bluff overlooking 
the Mississippi, which spread out before us like some broad 
lake. The banks were lined with live-oak, and back of us 
were dense forests and impenetrable swamps. Hardly had 
we arrived when I was detailed officer of the brigade guard. 
Pretty rough on a fellow who had n't slept any for forty- 
eight hours; but we were most of us in the same predica- 
ment. Then there were three of us lieutenants, so we had 
two hours on and four off, but the 13th lieutenant was sick 
and I stood for him, and the Maine lieutenant unaccount- 
ably disappeared, so I had a weary watch of it till 3 in the 
morning, when our cavalry was driven back upon us but 



SOLDIER 27 

no one hurt. At three I was relieved, and lying down on 
the bare ground, I slept like a rock till eight, when the new 
guard came. Here let me say that that rain of Sunday, 
which so tired us, was probably the saving of many of our 
lives; for the rebs, when they found that we were retreat- 
ing, turned out infantry, cavalry and artillery and pressed 
hard upon our heels, but the rain providentially deterred 
them. The 13th and 25th covered the retreat. March 17 
found us still in Camp Allen, for so we had named our 
camp. In the afternoon I took six men and started on a 
foraging expedition. We laid a couple of cows over pretty 
quick. Leaving four men to dress them, I started for a 
sugar plantation a mile or so distant. I found it entirely 
deserted, but lots of sugar and molasses. As this had not 
been confiscated to the United States government, we laid 
in and managed to get a small cask of the sweetening elixir 
up to the camp. On our return I found I was detailed to 
take command of Co. G., whose officers still remained sick. 
(Since we started I had been acting 1st heutenant in Co. 
A.) We held dress-parade at sunset in marching costume. 
I was very ragged, having burned the legs of my pants 
nearly oflF, and my blouse was well torn while skirmishing 
through the woods. 

"March 18, spent most of the day in mending the 
breaches in my breeches. Visited the 52nd Mass. and saw 
lots of Amherst boys, smoked the calumet of peace, and 
had a good time generally. After dress-parade took out 
Co. G. on a fatigue-party after wood. I am sure the rebs 
have some need to bring railing accusations against us, for 
I am certain there is not a rail to be found within twelve 
miles of Baton Rouge. 



28 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

"March 19, there was ordered an inspection of arms in 
the morning. While waiting for the colonel to come round 
to my company, the adjutant came along and said that 
the colonel, relying on my discretion and judgment, had 
ordered me to take picked men from the regiment and go 
out foraging after corn, and that if I got into any muss he 
would be ready to lend a helping hand. In a few minutes 
we were under way. Went out two miles and accomplished 
our mission satisfactorily. 

"March 20, received marching orders. At 3 o'clock got 
under way, and after a weary, hot march we reached our 
camp-ground at Baton Rouge at 7 o'clock. As we marched 
past Banks's head-quarters, he came out and saluted, 
while the bands of the different regiments played and 
we marched past at shouldered arms. We lay in the open 
air again all night, for it was too late and the men were 
too tired to pitch our tents that night." 

"March 21, was busy all day getting up our tents and 
jfixing ourselves generally, and that will complete the thread 
of my tale up to to-day. Excuse all moral reflections on 
the object of this expedition and what it has accomplished, 
for I am writing at lightning speed, having just received 
marching orders again, and all is packing and confusion 
around me. Where we are going to, nobody knows, so I 
can't enlighten you." 

DoNALDSONViLLE, Sunday, March 29, 1863. 

At last, after being over a week packing up, waiting for 
orders, we are on the move. We left Baton Rouge last night 
at 6.30, and reached this place at 9 (as our luck would have 
it) in a rain-storm. Lay under the trees all night, and this 



SOLDIER 29 

morning are endeavoring to enjoy ourselves drying off. I 
am writing on a drumhead to let you know where we are 
and where we are going. I suppose our present destination 
is Brashier City, Berwick Bay, but beyond that nothing 
is known. Rumor says Texas and Red River. We have 
taken tents and all our baggage and do not expect again 
to see Baton Rouge or Port Hudson. There is a steamer 
coming up the Mississippi, so I must hurry to get this off. 
Did n't I enjoy last night's meal on the boat ! It was worth 
paying fifty cents for a meal to see a white table-cloth and 
sit down in a Christian manner. We drank coffee to such 
an unlimited extent that positively we could see each other 
visibly swell like the woman at the tea-drinking described 
in the " Pickwick Papers." Donaldsonville is an exceedingly 
pretty, very old-fashioned shingle-roofed town. There is 
a bayou runs through its centre some three hundred yards 
wide, that runs clear to the gulf, and so deep that a frigate 
lies in it about a mile from where it sets in from the Missis- 
sippi. The catalpa and China-ball trees are in full blossom 
and the pecans are leafing out. There is a Catholic church 
that looks like a barn outside, but is quite tasty inside, and 
thither the inhabitants, who are mostly French and Spanish, 
are flocking. We have enjoyed the unwonted luxury of 
seeing ladies, white ladies, perambulating the streets in 
clean white petticoats. Don't laugh, but actually those 
white petticoats are the most homelike thing I have seen 
for months. Billy Wilson's Zouaves are in our division, but 
the whole regiment is under arrest and their arms taken 
away. They got drunk coming down on the boat, and 
mutineered. Since we returned to Baton Rouge from our 
expedition to Port Hudson, we have done nothing except 



30 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

lie round in a most uncomfortable state, with everything 
packed up, expecting to start every day. You can't think 
how beautiful everything is now. Cherokee roses, jessa- 
mines, jonquils, and a great variety of flowers, are in blos- 
som. We live out under the trees, with the rain pattering 
down upon us, and you shiver by your fires. We are greatly 
pestered with wood-ticks and it is almost impossible to 
pick them off. They stick so closely to the skin and burrow 
in. lam quite comfortable; campaigning evidently agrees 
with me. I have gained ten pounds since I left New York. 
The only thing I could wish for would be a havelock, — 
it's so fearfully hot; but it would be a good two months 
before I should get it, so I will try and make one for myself. 

From Bayou Boeuf, seven miles from Brashier City, 
writing on April 3, he continues his story : — 

"We have had some terribly hot and fatiguing marches, 
and the boys are many of them so foot-sore and blistered I 
doubt whether they could march much further. I have held 
out wonderfully. Have not so much as raised a sign of a 
blister, though carrying a rubber blanket and a thick over- 
coat in a sling on my shoulders, my canteen full of water, 
a haversack with two days' rations — provisions — in it, 
and my sword and revolvers; by no means a small load as 
you can imagine and as I found after the first few miles. 
My nose and cheeks underwent one skinning operation in 
our Port Hudson expedition and it grieves me to relate 
that they are again peeling. I am writing on a wooden 
mallet which I have improvised into a writing-table for the 
occasion. But I will return to Donaldsonville and write up 
the march. — March 30, we crossed over the Bayou La 



SOLDIER 31 

Fourche to the main part of the town and spent a couple 
of hours in exploring it. It must have been an exceedingly 
beautiful place, though now many of the houses are lying 
in ruins from the bombardment last summer.^ Then there 
is an exceedingly pretty cemetery, embowered in red and 
white roses which hang in clusters over the monuments. I 
noticed on many of the tombs fresh wreaths of roses and 
myrtle, and before many there were pictures hanging, re- 
presenting the survivors weeping beneath a willow. Blue 
pinks seem to be a very favorite flower and were planted 
around almost every monument. 

"March 31. We were packed up and on the move at 8.30 
A.M. Our road (in fact the whole way to Thibodeaux) lay 
along the Bayou La Fourche, a very deep and cold stream 
along which our steamers were passing bearing the sick and 
baggage. As we wound along under the China-ball and 
catalpa trees, the inhabitants were all on the piazzas watch- 
ing us, and that appeared to be their principal occupation 
everywhere. Such a slovenly, indolent set you never saw, 
— the women especially, with frizzled hair, unhooked 
dresses, and slipshod shoes. They were evidently poor 
white trash. But oh, the clover fields we passed ! The heart 
of an Alderney cow would have leaped into her mouth at 
the sight, and a butcher's mouth would have watered in 

^ During the summer of 1862 the people of Donaldsonville pursued the 
uniform practice of firing upon our steamers passing up and down the 
river. Admiral Farragut reports August 10: "I sent a message to the in- 
habitants that if they did not discontinue the practice I would destroy 
their town. The next night they fired on the St. Charles. I therefore 
ordered them to send their women and children out of town as I certainly 
intended to destroy the town on my way down the river, and I fulfilled 
my promise to a certain extent." 19 W. R. 141. 



32 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

anticipation, and it was just so all the way to Thibodeaux. 
Such a luxurious growth I never saw. After marching 
twelve miles we encamped at Cottonville [Paincourtville] 
pretty well fagged out. There were plenty of chickens, 
pigs and sheep running round loose, of which fact we were 
not slow to avail ourselves. The last vision I had as I 
closed my eyes was that of a porker squealing at the top 
of its lungs and charging blindly among the camp-fires, 
over the couches of the slumbering soldiers, pursued by a 
rabble of shouting youths discharging sticks, bayonets 
and other deadly missiles. 

"April 1. We were off at 7 a.m., still among clover fields 
and fig trees. On our march we passed some beautiful 
plantations, one of them especially so. It was perfectly 
embowered in trees, had a smooth-cut lawn, on which 
were a couple of deer feeding. There was a fountain play- 
ing and some swans swimming in a pond before the house. 
On the veranda a couple of ladies were working and some 
pretty little children were playing round. By George! it 
was the prettiest sight I have seen in Louisiana. It fairly 
stilled the clamor of the men, seeing these little children, 
and I heard more than one tough fellow ejaculate, * God 
bless them!' At another little white cottage we passed, 
a lady whose husband had fallen in the Union ranks sent 
her slaves down the road with pails of cool water for us. 
It was a simple act, but we could not help blessing her for 
it, as we resumed our dusty way. Oh, the heat and the 
dust! Not a breath of air stirring. We marched fourteen 
miles [twelve miles to Labadieville] and encamped on a 
sugar plantation, where we just had sugar and molasses 
to our hearts' content. The nights were extremely cold, 



SOLDIER 33 

and in the morning I would wake up and find my overcoat 
as wet as if it had been dipped in water. I have slept bare- 
headed in the open air every night, and yet strange to say 
have never caught the least particle of cold. But if ever 
I start again I'll carry a woolen nightcap; a man needs 
something of the kind. 

"April 2. Our brigade being in the advance, we were off 
at 5.30 A.M. in a flood of moonlight that silvered the dew- 
drops in the meadows far and near. There is something 
very pretty in the camping-out of an army. The camp- 
fires far and wide, the hum and bustle, and last, the cry 
of that ridiculous creature, the mule. We reached Thibo- 
deaux at noon, passed directly through the town, and en- 
camped three miles beyond. It was the hardest day's march 
of all [fourteen miles]. The men staggered and reeled about 
the road from fatigue and blistered feet. We all took hold 
and helped carry guns and knapsacks, but such a relief it 
was when we passed from the hard road into a clover field 
and lay down ! At 6 p.m. came the order to fall in, and we 
marched back to the R.R. station [Terre Bonne Station 
on the New Orleans and Opelousas R.R.] and took cars 
to Brashier City. It was very cold, and we were perched 
on top of the cars, while the 13th rode inside. Such a 
forsaken piece of country as we passed through, marshes 
and swamps on both sides of us ! Reached Bayou Boeuf at 
11, and were ordered to encamp. Was detailed to unload 
the cars, and worked till 2 in the morning unloading and 
stowing away; consequently, as I was up at 5 a.m., I do 
not feel very smart. We shall probably rest here for a few 
days." [They remained here until the 9th.] 

From Brashier City, under date of April 10, he writes 



34 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

to a classmate who had sent him Victor Hugo's account of 
the battle of Waterloo : — 

I received your letter last night after a hot, dusty, 
weary march of twelve miles from Bayou Boeuf, and was 
so tickled at seeing the well-known hand of my Calvinistic 
friend that forthwith I sit down to reply to it. Thank you 
a thousand times, old fellow, for your kind offers. The 
battle of Waterloo came safely to hand. It is a most mag- 
nificent thing — the finest description of the battle I ever 
read. Tired as I was, I was so fascinated I sat up half the 
night till I had finished it. You would have thought it was 
a pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, could you have 
seen me last night rolled up in my blanket in the dewy grass, 
reading by my lantern that swung from the friendly branch 
of a tree hard by. I am beginning to count the days when 
I shall see dear old New England hills once more. This 
confounded country we are marching in is nothing but a 
vast plain of swamp and forest, infested by mosquitoes 
that present bills prodigious, in fact twice as long as any 
a Philadelphia lawyer would have the conscience to pre- 
sent. Such vermin ! my gracious ! I '11 bet you, if these were 
Homeric days, the old cock never would have died trying 
to solve the fishermen's enigma. By the way, speaking of 
Homer, I confiscated the other day in a secesh house a 
pocket edition of Pope's "Ihad" and revived my classic 
love, reading of 

the twice twenty heroes fell 
Sent by great Ajax to the shades of hell. 

I am writing under great difficulties in the open air, 
on a log, and everybody jabbering around me like so many 



SOLDIER 35 

bees. I'm so fearfully demoralized, don't know as I shall 
succeed in getting this done so as to be intelligible. Since 
I last wrote we have been marching here and there and 
everywhere. Went within sight of the rebel fortifications. 
Lost one man the first night out. Our regiment led the 
advance the first three days. Our two divisions, Grover's 
and Emory's, are now after the rebs at Paterson and ex- 
pect to have a fight there. 

But I must close, for we shall soon be marching and 
I must get my duds together. Allow me in conclusion to 
quote the celestial bard of " Scots wha hae," — 

I am a son of Mars who have been in many wars 
And show my cuts and scars where'er I come. 
This fight was for a wench and that other in a trench 
When welcoming the rebs to the sound of the drum. 

Affectionately, 

Daddy Goodell. 

Among his college friends he was known by the sobriquet 
of "Daddy." When, where or why he got it, is not known, 
but he at once appropriated it and used it to the day of 
his death as his rightful designation, and made a good deal 
of fun out of the use of it. 

On Board the St. Mary's, Grand Lake, 
3 miles from Indian Bend, April 13. 

While they are landing troops from the other transports, 
I will try and write a few lines to return by this boat. At 
Bayou Boeuf we were encamped several days. There are 
some old tombstones at that place. On one is the follow- 
ing curious inscription, — 



36 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

AflBictions sore long time I bore. 
Physicians was in vain. 
Till God did please that death should come 
And ease me of my pain. 

Bayou Boeuf was a most forlorn place, and we were glad 
enough when at 3 o'clock, April 9, we received orders to 
strike our tents and stow them away, also all baggage what- 
soever, as we should carry nothing but a blanket and our 
rations. At 9 we started for Brashier City, ten miles away, 
our brigade in advance. We had a frightfully hot and dusty 
march. The first two or three miles there was scarcely any 
road at all, a mere foot-path, passing now amid sugar plant- 
ations and now through potato fields. Several miles were 
through a dense wood, where the heat was perfectly 
stifling. I noticed pinks, verbenas growing wild along the 
roadside, also the myrtle. Soon we came out on the broad 
road running along the Bayou, and here we halted for an 
hour at noon and snatched a dinner and a bath. Reached 
Brashier City at 3 o'clock and put up our shelter tents, ex- 
pecting to cross in a few hours. Emory's division was then 
crossing. Here we lay, expecting every minute to leave, 
till Saturday at 3 o'clock, when we were ordered aboard 
the St. Mary's. Although it was a small boat, yet the 
52nd Massachusetts, the 24th and 25th Connecticut, and 
a battery with horses, were stored on board. Just imagine 
how we were dove-tailed and crowded together. We 
steamed out of the bay at 9 o'clock Sunday morning, — 
the Clifton, flagship, ahead, then the Calhoun, Arizona, 
St. Mary's, Laurel Hill, and two or three little tugs, — up 
through the succession of Uttle lakes that chain together 
from Berwick Bay, through inlet and outlet, till we emerged 



SOLDIER 37 

at noon into Grand Lake. Here the Arizona got stuck, 
and after vainly trying for two or three hours to get her 
off, we pushed ahead and about sundown came to an an- 
chorage in a pretty httle bay. But after sending a party 
ashore to reconnoitre, we discovered it was the wrong place, 
and General Grover signaled to heave anchor and stand 
off and on. This morning at daybreak we ran in, surprising 
the enemies' pickets, and a brisk skirmishing has been 
going on. We are landing under the cover of the Calhoun, 
which is shelling the woods. Our object I suppose is to cut 
off the retreat of the rebels, which Emory's and Sherman's 
division crossed Berwick Bay to attack. 

As he wrote these Unes he probably httle thought what 
a day might bring forth, and he could not have realized 
the scene if he had thought. The next morning, April 12, 
came the hard-fought battle of Irish Bend. In the evening 
he writes to all near and dear to him : — 

My dear Brothers and Sisters, — Through the mercy 
of God, I am spared to write you of my safety. We have 
had a terrible battle and the 25th has suffered severely. 
For an hour and a half, we were under the hottest fire en- 
tirely unsupported; then the rebs succeeded in flanking 
us and we had to fall back a short distance, but the tune 
soon changed and the rebs retreated. We went into battle 
with 380 men and lost 73 wounded, 10 killed and 14 miss- 
ing. Our brigade, was about the only one engaged, and we 
lost over 300 men killed, wounded and missing. ^ Colonel 

* In the official returns the 25th Conn, is reported to have two officers 
killed and seven wounded, seven enlisted men killed, seventy-two wounded 
and ten missing. 15 W. R. p. 319. 



38 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Birge had his horse shot under him, also Captain Norton. 
We had two officers killed and four wounded. I had a ball 
pass through the sleeve of my left arm without so much as 
scratching me. Another crossed my breast, cutting nearly 
in two the strap coming over my shoulder to support my 
sword-belt. It seems almost a miracle that I escaped unhurt. 
When we fell back I was endeavoring to bring in a wounded 
man, and a second ball laid him lifeless in my very arms. 
The shots fell so thick and fast, we could see them strike 
within a foot or two all around us. This is no exaggeration. 
April 15. I have had no chance to send this, but as I find 
I can probably send it soon, I will try and add a few lines 
by the bivouac fire. We have formed a junction with 
Emory's division and Weitzel's brigade, and are in close 
pursuit of the flying rebs, seven miles from New Iberia. 
We have taken something like five hundred prisoners, three 
pieces, and five or six caissons, and the rebs, fearful of the 
Diana and the Queen of the West falling into our hands, 
burned them. In addition to this, the Arizona, when 
aground, engaged and blew up a reb gun-boat. But I can 
write no more. Will try in my next to send a plan of the 
battle-field with a detailed account. We are in hot pursuit, 
our advance skirmishing with General Moulton's rear 
guard. 

"April 18, 1863. Two miles from Ver million ville. As 
we are halting to repair a bridge that the rascally rebs have 
burned I will try and write a few Unes. Enclosed is a small 
plan of the battle of Irish Bend, which in my letter of 
April 15 I promised to send. I will now go a little more into 
detail of the events of April 13. We landed about 11 o'clock 



SOLDIER 



39 




18 tli.Ct. 






26 th.Me. 



Hospitals 

AAA 



25 th 




A.- Skirmishers of 25th fiirsPadvancing-th^ro the fields, 
B - Reg. as it begau to get'undenflreiand swing j'oundj 
C C - 25th actually engaged in battle. 
D - Where the rebs. came down and flanked us. 



Road 



and immediately marched up through the woods to the 
edge of a cane-field, where we halted till 4 in the afternoon. 
Meantime our forces were skirmishing with the rebs and 
gradually driving them back, just saving the bridge over 
the Bayou, the flames of which we succeeded in extin- 
guishing. At 4 we started, crossed the bridge and advanced 
a mile, when we were drawn up in a field in line of battle; 
but the 26th Maine and the 159th New York soon drove in 
the skirmishers, and night coming on, we lay on our arms. 
It was quite cold and showery, but we did n't dare build 
fires to dry us or make coffee. 

" At 4 A.M., April 14, we started, the 25th in advance, 



40 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

thrown out as skirmishers on the right of the road; the 
left was protected by the Bayou. We advanced for about 
two miles through cane-fields without meeting anything, 
till at 6.30 we entered the main plantation, the mill on our 
extreme left close to the road, while on our right were 
thick woods. Here we first encountered a dropping fire, and 
our line of skirmishers gradually swung round till finally 
they occupied the place marked C — C. But for an hour, 
till reinforced, our fine extended also over the space occu- 
pied by the 26th Maine. As we swung into position, we sud- 
denly heard the cry, 'Attention Battalion, take aim, fire!' 
and immediately the woods seemed to spring into life, while 
a perfect storm of canister, grape and minie balls was 
rained down upon our ranks. 

" Taking advantage of every little ridge and furrow, we 
slowly advanced, loading and firing, while our artillery en- 
gaged the rebel battery. Here we were in an open field for 
an hour and a half, seen but not seeing, for the rebs were 
concealed in the woods and did not needlessly expose them- 
selves, so the most of the time we could only aim and fire 
at the flash and the smoke. The men now began to be 
carried out pretty rapidly. About 7.30, the 26th Maine 
came up on our left, while the 13th crossed the road and 
tried to capture the reb battery. About 8 o'clock suddenly 
there was a terrific yell and 1100 men rushed in on our flank 
and commenced peppering us well. I have heard men speak 
of a hail-storm of bullets; but I never imagined it before. 
We were between two fires and the way the balls whisked 
and zipped among the cane-stalks and ploughed up the 
ground around us was truly astonishing. In less than ten 
minutes two thirds of all the loss we experienced on that 



SOLDIER 41 

day occurred; still, though under a tremendous fire, scarce 
a man left the ranks, till the order was given to fall back. 
My former orderly, Holden, fell by my side pierced by three 
balls, my sergeant lost his leg, my first corporal had a ball 
pass through both jaws, cutting off his tongue, my second 
one had a flesh wound in his thigh, and one of my men 
was slightly wounded in the arm, as he stood behind me 
and passed me a cartridge (for I used a gun all through the 
action). There is scarcely a man in the regiment but what 
has a bullet-hole to show in some part of his clothing, and 
some have two or three. One had his life saved by his 
metal tobacco-box, which received and stopped the ball. 
Sergeant Goodwin of Co. A was wounded in his foot. It 
is a wonder Colonel Bissell was not shot, as he constantly 
passed up and down the line encouraging the men. Colonel 
Birge and all four of his staff officers had horses shot under 
them. But there was no use in our remaining under a 
cross-fire, and we were ordered to fall back, which we did 
while three other regiments advanced and drove our flank- 
ers in; at the same time the 13th succeeded in flanking their 
right and they decamped. 

"We halted for an hour, forming round the colors, and 
then advanced by the road into the woods and here we re- 
mained till 5 o'clock P.M., when the rebs burned their gun- 
boats and skedaddled; but almost all the time we were con- 
stantly annoyed by their skirmishers and shells from their 
gun-boats and battery. Soon after entering the wood I 
was ordered to the front with four men, to keep concealed 
and send back reports of what the rebels were about; no 
very pleasant job, for the balls were flying thick. I never 
suffered so from thirst in my life as I did during the con- 



42 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

flict. It seemed as though my throat would burst. I had 
eaten nothing since the night before, a sick headache came 
on, and I could scarcely move after the real excitement 
was over till I got an hour or two of sleep there in the woods. 
At 5 P.M. we marched back to the Bayou and encamped. 

*' April 15, we started for Newton or New Iberia, distance 
thirty-one miles, reaching there on the eve of the 16th. It 
was a terribly hot and dusty march and the men were very 
foot-sore. Emory's Division was ahead of us and skir- 
mished all the way with General Taylor's forces (for he 
commands the rebel forces and is a son of old Z. Taylor). 
They took some five hundred prisoners. At Newton we 
found most of our missing men, who had been paroled 
by General Taylor and left there. New Iberia is a very 
pleasant place of some fifteen hundred inhabitants. There 
are some very beautiful mansions, with grounds laid out in 
fancy style. There is a small foundry in the place and a 
couple of magazines; one of its three churches was stored 
with powder and ammunition abandoned in the flight. 
The people were more Union than any we have previously 
seen, and were of a better class than the ordinary run. 
Provisions were at almost fabulous prices. Eggs fifty cents 
a dozen, coffee six dollars a pound, and flour one hundred 
and fifty dollars a barrel! Just think of that ! By the way, 
we found out from our rebel prisoners how their men lived. 
They had only one commissary wagon drawn by six oxen 
for an army of six thousand men. They lived upon the 
plantations as they passed along. 

" April 17, we were aroused at 3 a.m., but through some 
delay we did not start till 6 o'clock. Our division was alone, 
Emory's division having taken a circuitous route. We made 



SOLDIER 43 

a terrible march of twenty miles. The men fell out by scores, 
but we pushed the rebs so hard, we captured their officers' 
baggage-wagons. At 5 p.m. they made a slight stand, and 
an artillery duel of an hour's duration ensued, in which 
we lost two or three men. The rebs then retired burning 
the bridge over the Bayou. We halted for the night and 
have been most of the day constructing a new bridge. It 's 
a very good rest for the men, but those confounded rebs 
will just escape us, I am afraid. I supppose we are bound 
for Alexandria via Opelousas. By to-morrow or to-night 
we shall be off again. I must close, for there is an opportun- 
ity, I hear, to send back." 

For once his guess was correct. They drove the Con- 
federates before them, and on April 20 occupied Opelousas, 
which since the capture of Baton Rouge had been the capi- 
tal of the State of Louisiana. Here General Banks gave his 
worn and weary army a rest until May 5. The 25th Con- 
necticut took position about ten miles east of headquarters, 
at Barre's Landing, now called Fort Barre. While the 
privates enjoyed the suspension of active operations the 
officers seem to have been unusually busy, as their num- 
bers had been greatly reduced by resignation, sickness and 
death. 

With a little rest his natural exuberance of spirit burst 
out afresh. 

Bahre's Landing, April 28, 1863. 

Daddy Goodell has been jubilant this morning and in 
a state of unwonted excitement. Cause, the receipt this 
morning of the "Atlantic" for April, and seven letters in- 
cluding yours of April 4. Thrice-happy dog of a Goodell! 
Sweet Singer in Israel, why recall to my mind the touching 



44 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

farewell sung in the streets of Springfield at midnight. It 
harrows up my soul and leaves me high and dry on a waste 
of mournful reflections. Don't speak to me of currency of 
any description. That infernal paymaster has not yet 
blessed us with his appearance, and despair drives me in a 
single night to swearing in bad German. Don't ask me 
where I am? Know then, Friend of my Soul, that we are 
seven miles from Opelousas, the rebel capital of Louisiana; 
that it has surrendered at discretion and lies prostrate at 
the feet of the American eagle, while that most eccentric 
bird flops its broad wings from end to end of this most 
rebellious state and retires to brood in silence over the de- 
fiant aspect of Port Hudson. Since the battle of Irish Bend 
we have pressed the rebels hard all the way to O., fighting 
with their rear guard and taking prisoners all the way; 
and they were so completely demoralized that they scat- 
tered in every direction. Our cavalry made a splendid 
charge at New Iberia, with bridles hanging loose and sabres 
drawn, waving, shouting at the top of their lungs, they 
galloped into the Texicans, hacking them hilter-skilter. 
It was a grand sight and stirred my very blood, I tell you. 
We are now at the port of Opelousas and are shipping cot- 
ton by the scores of bales. We have sent some two thou- 
sand bales and have about five hundred now on the landing 
and more coming in hourly. At one place we found nine 
hundred bales. I was on picket the other day and had the 
good luck to fall upon one hundred and fifty rebel sabres, 
not a bad haul altogether. 

He had a classmate who at this time was studying 
theology, of whom he made a world of good-natured fun. 



SOLDIER 45 

Sometimes he would write in ludicrous and pathetic strains 
on the importance of the ministerial ojBBce, and then, as- 
suming the position of a penitent sinner, would ask ad- 
vice for the guidance of his conduct, as absurd as to ask 
for a dispensation before drinking a glass of water from 
the Mississippi River. From Barre's Landing he writes 
to this friend: 

Beloved D. D., — How was my heart delighted yester- 
day on receiving the "Atlantic "directed in thine own hand. 
It smacked so strongly of a bookseller's shelves, that Daddy 
Goodell, like some worn-out war horse at the sound of a 
trumpet, pricked up his ears and for the space of an hour 
sat sniffing the leaves without reading a single word. I am 
promising myself all manner of feasts when I come to read 
it, but just at present I am terribly busy, for in addition 
to being the only ofl&cer in command of Co. A (both its of- 
ficers being put hors de combat on the field of Irish Bend), 
I am sitting on a court-martial, trying those thrice un- 
happy cusses who have violated all law, civil, religious 
and military. We are in a very interesting condition, for 
our baggage-trains were seized at FrankHn to carry ammu- 
nition, and all our baggage left there; consequently, this 
being the 11th hour, in which my shirt is washed, your 
uncle has to lie abed while it is drying. I have numbered 
my shirt No. 6, but it is a pleasing delusion from which I 
constantly awake to naked facts. Had a letter from Pater 
Gridley ^ the other day. He is in for three years. Asked 
all about you and what you were doing. I wrote him that 
our D. D. was fighting the devil at Cambridge right man- 
^ Henry Gridley, a classmate. 



46 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

fully, and was succeeding admirably in subduing his carnal 
appetites and passions. 

Bless me, the steamer is whistling and I must close. 
As ever 

Daddy Goodell. 

Some time about the first of May the paymaster arrived. 
It was an occasion of great interest to the soldiers, as they 
had not been paid for nearly six months. Many wished 
to send money to their families, who in many cases were 
sorely in need of it. But they were more than two hundred 
miles from New Orleans, the nearest point from which they 
could send it with any safety. There were no Confederates 
in arms between them and New Orleans, but the country 
was full of men who had broken with law and order, and who 
held any human life very cheap except their own, and who 
would take great risks with that when money was at stake. 
How to send the money the men could spare to New Orleans 
became a vital question. It not only required an honest 
man and a good accountant, but it required a man of cour- 
age, whose head was level, and would be under any cir- 
cumstances, and whose resources were at command in any 
emergency. The colonel nominated Lieutenant Goodell, 
and the regiment confirmed the nomination by unani- 
mous vote. This tells its own story of the position he had 
won for himself in the minds of his fellow soldiers, both 
officers and privates. 

In a paper printed in this volume entitled, "How the pay 
of the regiment was carried to New Orleans," he has made 
it very apparent that the responsibility he felt made the 
duty imposed upon him a very arduous one. During his 



SOLDIER 47 

absence, which was longer than he had expected, the army 
had marched a hundred miles in three days and four hours, 
had occupied Alexandria, and in cooperation with the navy 
had destroyed the Confederate fortresses and scattered their 
forces to the wind, and had started down the Red River on 
their way to Port Hudson. Goodell met them at Simsport 
and here he begins his story of the advance upon that 
fortress. 

On May 21, we received orders to march, and at 12 
embarked on board the Empire Parish along with the 13th 
Connecticut and the 159th New York. You can imagine 
how crowded we were and add to this the fact that a good 
many men of the . . . were drunk and inclined to be 
quarrelsome. Poor Colonel Bissell was quite ill and had to 
seek a berth immediately. Soon after 3 p.m., the rest of 
the boats being loaded, we slipped from our moorings and 
away up the Atchafalaya to the Red where we passed the 
Switzerland ^ and the Estrella watching for rebel craft from 
Sheveport. Down the Red to the Mississippi, where we 
came upon the grim old Hartford [Rear-Admiral Farragut's 
flag-ship]. The band of the 13th saluted her as we ap- 
proached, playing 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' and 'Yan- 
kee Doodle.' 

At 12 at night we disembarked at Bayou Sara some six- 
teen miles from Port Hudson. The rest of the brigade 

* The U. S. S. Estrella had made its way up from Berwick Bay with the 
army. The U. S. Ram Switzerland had on the morning of March 25, in 
company with the U. S. S. Lancaster, undertaken to run by the batteries 
at Vicksburg. The Lancaster was destroyed by the enemy's fire and the 
Switzerland received a 10-inch shell in her boilers, but escaped, to join 
Farragut and take a part in blockading the Red River. 



48 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

marched on and left our regiment to unload the boats. 
It was 2 A.M. before any of us lay down and at 4, May 22, 
we marched breakfastless to overtake the brigade. The 
colonel we left at a house with a guard, the major as- 
suming command of the regiment. We marched one and 
a half miles, and found the brigade encamped at St. Francis- 
ville, which is set on a high hill, the first we have seen since 
coming to Louisiana, and here we actually saw some stones. 
The boys welcomed them as old friends, and picked them 
up admiringly. Soon after 9 our column was set in motion, 
the 2nd brigade in advance. As we passed through the 
town of St, Francisville the people thronged to the doors 
and windows, some cursing and swearing, others welcoming 
and others again passive. One woman in a very spiteful 
tone calls out to a friend : " Come in, Mrs. Lewis, for God's 
sake and don't stand there staring at those Yankee devils ! " 
I could n't resist taking off my cap and making her a low 
bow, which so exasperated her that, calhng me some foul 
name and kicking out her feet in a most indecent manner, 
she vanished into the house. The manners of these Southern 
women are truly astonishing. They will curse and revile 
and call you foul names and call upon heaven to smile on 
a just cause. We had a terrible march up and down hill, 
between magnificent hedges of cape jessamine in bloom, 
very beautiful but terribly oppressive, for not a particle of 
air could reach us and the dust was stifling. We advanced 
very slowly, for it was a terrible country for skirmishes. 
We had a couple of men wounded but that was all the loss 
we experienced that day. 

At 4 P.M. we halted and our regiment was ordered to 
the front as an advance picket for the night. We deployed 



SOLDIER 49 

on a plain by a beautiful creek (Thompson's), where the 
water was knee-deep and ran clear as crystal, Co. K. was 
ordered across to hold the roads on the edge of the adjoin- 
ing woods, and after a short skirmish succeeded in effecting 
their object. It rained quite hard, and of course we had to 
be upon the watch most of the night. 

May 23, we started at 4 a.m., our men pretty well 
fagged-out by two nights' duty; but no mercy was shown, 
and the 25 th was ordered to take the advance as skirmish- 
ers; and a terrible time we had of it straggling through sand- 
banks and ravines, forcing ourselves through bamboo 
brake, pushing under and over vines, wading through 
water, scratching and tearing ourselves with thorns, and 
stumbling over ploughed fields. It was thoroughly ex- 
hausting work and many a strong man gave out. At 9 
o'clock A.M. we met the advance of Colonel Grierson's 
cavalry,^ and our poor wearied column of men was called 

^ The name of B. H. Grierson, Colonel of the 6th Dlinois Cavalry, is 
connected with one of the most daring enterprises of the Civil War. 
While General Grant was manoeuvring to secure a position behind 
Vicksburg, he wished to distract the attention of the enemy and wrote 
to Major-General Hurlbut on February 14, 1863: " It seems to me that 
Grierson with about 500 picked men might succeed in making his way 
south and cut railroad east of Jackson, Miss. The undertaking would be 
a hazardous one, but would pay well if carried out. I do not direct that 
it shall be done, but leave it for a volunteer enterprise" (24 W. R. P. 
Ill, p. 60). Colonel Grierson was not a man to decline such a chal- 
lenge from the commanding general, and without doubt the general knew 
it. He started from La Grange, Tenn., April 17, with about seventeen 
hundred men, and four days later detached six hxmdred of them to destroy 
the railroad between Columbus and Macon and make their way back to 
La Grange. This move threw the enemy into confusion, and with the re- 
mainder of his command he pushed on, making a march of some six hun- 
dred miles in sixteen days, destroying as he went railroads, telegraphs. 



50 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

in. Advancing one mile, we halted in a field near a well of 
deliciously cold water, about two miles from Port Hudson. 
In a few minutes General Augur rode up and the generals 
held a conference together. 

At 7 P.M. I was suddenly detailed with forty men to go 
on picket. Pretty rough on a fellow to be three nights on 
duty; but a soldier's first duty is to obey without grumbling, 
so I went, though I could hardly keep my eyes open. It was 
a magnificent moonhght night and I sat and watched the 
bombs from the mortar boats for hours, curving round 
in the heavens and bursting in a fiery shower. The night 
passed without disturbance, save one or two false alarms. 

At 4 A.M. May 24, 1 started out black-berrying, and in 
a very few minutes had more than enough for a good meal. 
Fancy me peacefully gathering berries under the guns of 
Port Hudson. At 8 a. m we were called in and at 9 we 
commenced making a Sunday advance on the centre forti- 
fications. The 2nd Brigade was in the advance, and the 
24th Connecticut lost a few men. At noon the first earth- 
work was taken and we deployed in the woods to the right 
and stacked arms. We lay here a couple of hours while 
shells exploded and burst around us and over our heads, 
but we were mercifully preserved though in great danger 
for a time. Soon after 4 p.m. the right wing was ordered out 
as picket-skirmishers, — that is, we were stationed behind 
trees, one to a tree all through the woods, to keep the enemy 
back. On our right was the 13th Connecticut, and on the 
left we joined the 24th Connecticut. This was the fourth 

and an immense quantity of public stores, arrived at Baton Rouge, May 2, 
and was detained to cooperate with General Banks in the operations 
aroimd Port Hudson. 



SOLDIER 51 

night I had been on duty and I was thoroughly worn out, 
but they had n't done with the 25th yet. May 25, we were 
called in and reheved at 9 a.m. by the 12th Maine. As I was 
reheving my men, followed by the 12th Maine, we had to 
pass over a plateau commanded by the sharpshooters of 
the enemy. The bullets whistled most unpleasantly near 
and killed one of the 12th. I saw him fall and called upon 
his comrades to bring him in, but not one started, and I 
actually had to go myself with one of my own company and 
pick up and bring in the dying man. We naturally sup- 
posed after being reUeved we should get some repose; but 
hardly had we come in, when we were ordered to fall in. 
We marched out of the woods and up over the hill and the 
intrenchments taken the day before, and immediately 
came under a sharp fire from sharpshooters. The . . . 
having disgracefully abandoned their position, we were or- 
dered in to drive the rebels out, and after a sharp skirmish 
of half an hour we drove them clean out of the woods and 
into their rifle-pits, while we occupied the woods, — the 
extreme edge of the woods, — and kept up such a sharp 
fire that not a mother's son of them durst lift his head above 
the works. We were just in time to save the 12th Maine 
from being flanked and cut to pieces. In the afternoon 
General Weitzel's brigade attacked, and after a severe 
fight drove the rebels out of the woods. This was going on 
on our right and we could hear the yells and hurrahs, the 
crackle of musketry and roar of artiUery, and other con- 
comitants of the fight, but we could see nothing and we sat 
and fidgeted round, not knowing when our turn might 
come. 
At 8 P.M. we were relieved by the 159th [New York], 



52 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

and so tired out was I that I fell right down on the bare 
ground and never woke till 8 or 9 o'clock next morning. 

May 26, we remained on the reserve till 4 p.m. when the 
three right companies were ordered to the front. We had 
a splendid sight of an artillery duel going on in which the 
practice of Nims's battery was perfect. They dismounted 
two or three guns, and altogether were so sharp that the 
rebel gunners did not dare load their pieces. 

May 27. We were relieved at 5 a.m. by the 13th [Con- 
necticut], but were almost immediately after ordered out to 
the support of a new section of Nims's battery which had 
just been got into position. Here we lay for five or six 
hours flat on our faces, while the enemies' shells burst in 
most unpleasant proximity. Then our regiment and the 
159th [New York] were ordered over to the support of 
General Weitzel on the right. We marched almost on the 
double-quick through the woods, and were ordered by 
General Grover to advance to the front and carry an earth- 
work. We were told there were hardly any rebels there, 
and Mayor Burt of the 159th, who was in command, was 
told that his regiment alone was suflScient to carry the 
works, and to send back the 25th if it was not needed. A 
more bare-faced lie never was got up, as the sequel will 
show. We pushed on through the woods, rushed down a 
hill swept by the enemy's artillery, turned a sharp corner 
and emerged on the entrance to a plain. I shall never forget 
that sight : the valley was filled up with felled trees, ruins 
of houses and debris, while thick and heavy rolled the 
battle-smoke. There was a hill on the left strongly in- 
trenched, and from its centre loomed up a big gun, black 
and gloomy, threatening to annihilate us; just below, on a 



SOLDIER 53 

little bridge^ was planted a stand of the stars and stripes, 
the glorious old banner, and clustered around it stood a 
handful of brave men pouring a stream of balls upon that 
piece; and for seven long hours the gunners did not dare 
approach to load, and that frowning gun kept silence. 

It was a sort of floating panorama that passed before me, 
a hideous dream in which I was a mere spectator. There 
was a roaring and crashing of artillery and bursting of 
shells, a crackle and rattle of muskets with hissing and 
whistling of balls, and battle-smoke lowering and settling 
down upon us. There were men dropping here and there, 
headless trunks and legless, armless unfortunates, and all 
the horrid concomita of war, and still we kept on. A short 
turn to the right, and in single file we commenced ascending 
through a water-course. Wading through water, stumbling 
under and over logs, we finally emerged in a square pit, 
some six foot deep ; climbing out of that, we were on the side 
of the hill. Oh, but it was a wicked place to charge, — the 
nature of the ground such we could not form battle line 
and had to make the attack in three columns, while felled 
trees were criss-crossed in most inextricable confusion. 

We lay for two or three moments with beating hearts 
waiting for the forward charge. The word came, and with 
a terrific yell we rose to our feet and rushed forward. I 
headed the left column. It was a terrible moment when, 
bounding over the last tree and crashing through some low 
bushes, we came out not ten yards from the intrenchments 
and a hundred rifles cracking doom at us. Why, we were so 
near they actually seemed to scorch us in firing ! It was too 
deadly for men to stand against, and our brave fellows, 
mowed down as fast as they could come up, were beaten 



54 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

back. Here occurred one of those heroic deeds we some- 
times read of. The colors of the 159th were left on the hill, 
their sergeants killed. Corporal Buckley, Co. K. of our 
regiment, hearing of it, calmly walked back in that terrific 
fire, picked them up and brought them in, turned to pick 
up his gun, and was killed. He was a noble fellow and 
much beloved in the regiment. 

Resting a short time, we made a second charge, but with 
like result. Our two regiments lost 75 killed and wounded. 
It was a horrid old place we were in. Sharpshooters on the 
left picking us off. Sharpshooters on the right giving it to 
us; and in front the rifle-pits. Here we lay till 10 o'clock 
at night, when we were ordered to fall back, which we did, 
bringing off most of our wounded. I had fallen asleep and 
barely woke in time to get off. One or two did sleep through 
till morning, and then managed to get away. I had one 
killed and three wounded in my little company. 

As this is getting too long I will carry on the narrative 
in my next. 

For Eliza's special benefit, though I have answered it 
three or four times already, I will state that Co. F. has not 
been dissolved and that I am at present acting adjutant, 
which office I have been endeavoring to fulfill the last three 
weeks, our adjutant having been sick almost ever since we 
came here. Our colonel we miss sadly, and do earnestly 
hope to welcome him back one of these days. Our regiment 
numbers 167 for duty and 9 officers. I am glad you did n't 
send any camphor, for I procured some in N. O. Thanks for 
the Springfield ["Repubhcan"]. It comes quite regularly 
and is a great treat. If you make any extracts from my 
letters I wish you would please not put my name to them. 



SOLDIER 55 

They get back here to camp and it is exceedingly pro- 
voking. With ever so much love, 

Henry. 

May 28 he writes : 

As there is an opportunity to send letters, I will write 
a few lines to let you know of my safety. This is the sixth 
day of the siege and we are pretty well played out. We have 
had to fight for every inch of ground, but have carried the 
first two earthworks by storm. It has been one continual 
fight since we commenced, but there is a cessation of hostili- 
ties for a few hours, and the lull is a perfect relief, for my 
ears have been half -stunned by the deafening roar of artil- 
lery and the crack of musketry. We have lost four killed 
and twenty wounded and some thirty in our regiment 
missing. Again, in my little company, have four been 
wounded — one fatally, so I am afraid. My life has been 
in great danger several times, but a kind Providence has 
kept watch over me thus far and I trust will bring me out 
safe to see you again. The regiment is now under the com- 
mand of Major McManus. The colonel is prostrate with 
a remittent fever at Bayou Sara, and the lieutenant-colonel 
is sick at New Orleans. The colored regiments have fought 
splendidly and made several brilHant charges. 

In haste, Heney. 

The next letter is dated June 20 and carries the story 
to a day or two after the second assault on the rebel works, 
and was probably written from the camp of the storming 
colunm; but not a hint as to that subject. A chaplain's 
wife writing to her husband says, "We get no letters from 



56 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

the soldiers these days." To which he replied, "The sol- 
diers have no time and no material to write with and are on 
duty the whole time." The truth is, the siege was being 
pressed with the utmost vigor. Goodell entered into the 
spirit of the time, and we are told that, when his regiment 
was not employed, he would ask to be allowed to join some 
company where he had friends, and was once seen return- 
ing covered with blood; aid was sent out to him, but it was 
found to be only an attack of the nose-bleed. 

I left off in my last with the unsuccessful charges made 
by our regiment and the 159th on the 27th. About 10 
o'clock that night we silently withdrew, bringing away all 
the wounded we could reach, but there were some poor 
fellows lying up under the breastworks it was impossible 
to reach. Every time we tried to get to them the rebs would 
fire on us. We threw them canteens of water and the in- 
human rebs fired on them when they tried to reach them. 
We marched back and lay on the battle-field of the pre- 
ceding day among wounded and dead men. 

May 28, at 4 a.m., we marched back into the woods, 
and lay in support of a battery. It was very trying, for the 
rebs had a perfect range, and five or six times a day they 
would throw those immense eleven-inch shells right over 
into our midst. We could hear them coming for several 
seconds, and we lay flat behind trees. Luckily none were 
hurt, though we had some very narrow escapes. There was 
a cessation of hostilities all day to bury the dead. 

At 7 P.M. the enemy made a fierce onslaught on the 
right, but were driven back with heavy loss. We fell into 
our places, expecting momentarily to be called into action, 



SOLDIER 57 

but we were spared it. At this place we remained till the 
1st of June when we were ordered quarter of a mile to the 
rear. Colonel Weld came up from New Orleans and assumed 
command of the regiment. It makes me heart-sick and in- 
dignant every time I think of the way some things have 
been managed here and the cowardice displayed by officers; 
but I may not mention it here. On the 3d [June] we were 
attacked in the rear and two brigades were despatched to 
attend to the case of the rebs; but on reaching Clinton they 
found they had skedaddled and fled. While lying here in 
the woods, an awkward adventure happened to me. Being 
acting adjutant, I was sent one dark night to report a 
fatigue party to General Grover's headquarters. Returning 
I lost my way. First, I found myself back at headquarters. 
Started again, and found myself out to the front, most un- 
pleasantly near the rifle-pits. My next essay took me to the 
watering-place for the horses, and from there I found my 
way in, after a couple of hours wandering in the woods. 
June 7 we were ordered to the front to relieve the 159th 
in the rifle-pits. We went out at night, as the enemy's 
sharpshooters rendered it dangerous going in the day- 
time. We had pits dug on the crest of a hiU about two hun- 
dred yards from the rifle-pits of the rebs, and had loop- 
holes from which to fire out. About one hundred yards 
back of us on another hill was planted one of our batteries, 
and as they fired over our heads you can imagine what a 
terrible report rung in our ears. It was truly deafening. 
Our boys got the range of the rifle-pits opposite perfectly, 
after a short practice, so that Mr. Secesh did n't dare show 
his head, though from his hiding-places he would annoy us 
all day long. After dark we usually held some interesting 



58 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

conversations across the ravine, our boys telling them that 
if they wanted any soft bread, we would put some in a mor- 
tar and send it over, etc., etc. Our meals were brought out 
at 3 o'clock in the morning, and after dark at night. We lay 
here three days and were reHeved on the 10th by the 
159th. I was very much interested the last day in watching 
a snake swallow a toad. It was astonishing how wide he 
opened his jaws and pushed a toad down, three times his 
diameter. Rather a curious place to study natural history, 
under the guns of Port Hudson. We returned to our old 
camping-ground. June 11, between 12 and 1 p.m., a general 
assault was planned, but owing to some misunderstanding 
the scheme failed and we were repulsed. 

June 14 we were under way at an early hour, for we 
formed the reserve to the attacking column on the centre. 
Colonel Birge was in command of the reserve. We rose at 
2 A.M., had coffee, and started under the guidance of Cap- 
tain Norton at 3. In a few moments we heard a terrific yell 
and the crash and roar of artillery and musketry. Soon the 
wounded and dead began to be brought in, some faint and 
pale, others cursing and swearing and vowing they would 
go back for revenge. All kinds of conflicting rumors were 
rife as to the success of our brave fellows. Then General 
Paine was wounded and Colonel Birge assumed command, 
we, forming the reserve, being under Colonel Morgan. Soon 
we were ordered forward. On through the scene of our first 
day's fight, then down through a ravine where a road had 
been cut. Halting at the foot of a hill we formed line of 
battle and charged, but it was a great mistake, for instead 
of creeping round the hill we had to charge over it, down 
through the ravine and up the next before we could reach 



SOLDIER 59 

the breastworks. The consequence was we were exposed 
to a raking fire as we went over the crest. Here we lost 
two lieutenants and seventeen men wounded. We arrived 
at the other side in great confusion. There were parts of 
twelve or fifteen regiments all mixed up together and en- 
tangled among the fallen trees. After several hours straight- 
ening, line was once more formed ; but the order to charge 
was countermanded, and we lay up there in a terrible sun 
all day. I was quite sick when we started, with violent 
vomitings, and had to lie down, but rejoined the regiment 
during the charge. At 8 p.m. we were ordered up into the 
outer ditch of the breastworks, but we had been there but 
a short time when we were ordered to the right, to our old 
position in the rifle-pits, which we reached about midnight. 
Poor General Paine had been wounded in the leg in the 
early part of the day, but we could not reach him to afford 
him any aid and he lay there in the burning sun till night, 
when we brought him off in safety. It was a fearfully hot 
day and quite a number were sunstruck, some fatally. I 
wore wet leaves in my hat, but about two in the afternoon 
could stand it no longer and had to lie down in the shade. 
This was a miserable Simday scrape, and like all scrapes 
commenced on Sunday ended disastrously. The loss of life 
was frightful. 

June 15. We were relieved at night by the 28th Con- 
necticut and returned once more to our old camping- 
ground, where we remained till June 19, when we were 
ordered a mile and a half to the right, to support the col- 
ored brigade, where we are still, June 20. 

As ever, with oceans of love, 

Henry. 



60 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

June 15, the day after the second assault on Port Hud- 
son, General Banks issued his famous general order no. 49, 
the only one of the kind issued during the war, calling for 
volunteers for a storming column of a thousand men, "to 
vindicate the Flag of the Union and the memory of its 
defenders who had fallen! Let them come forward . . . 
every officer and soldier who shares its perils and its glory 
shall receive a medal fit to commemorate the first grand 
success of the campaign of 1863 for the freedom of the 
Mississippi. His name will be placed in general orders 
upon the Roll of Honor." ^ 

The next day the order was promulgated and two days 
later, on the 18th, Goodell wrote to a classmate: — 

In the words of Prof. Tyler in his 19th disquisition on 
Homer, "The battle still rages. Omnipotence holds the 
scales in equal hand,but vengeful Hera upsets them." This 
is the 25th day of the siege and we are still stuck outside 
the fortifications. Last Sunday we made a general assault, 
but were repulsed with terrible loss. We got inside three 
times, but for want of support were driven out. Oh, but it 
was a terrible place where we charged, — a perfect murder 
the way it was managed. Instead of creeping round the hills 
and starting directly for the breastworks, they ordered us 
to charge across two hills and two ravines before coming 
to the base of the last; and consequently we were exposed 
to a withering fire as we went over the crest of each hill, 
men were mown down right and left. It is wonderful how 
I have been preserved. I have been in four direct assaults 
on the works, half a dozen skirmishes and one fight, and yet 

1 41 W. R., 56. 



SOLDIER 61 

not a scratch have I received. Washington Allen [a class- 
mate] was slightly wounded on Sunday by a piece of a 
shell, but nothing dangerous. 

There has been a call for a thousand volunteers to storm 
the works, and officers to lead them. I have volunteered 
among the number. Don't think me rash. I thought the 
matter over a whole day before signing my name, and it 
seemed too clearly my duty, to refuse. If I fall, " Dulce est 
pro patria mori." Your "Atlantic" I received safely. Many 
thanks. It was indeed a treat to get something to read. 
There were some capital things in Gail Hamilton's "Spasms 
of Sense," especially what she says of married women being 
heard from only six times in ten years and each time a 
baby. " Reminiscences of Buckle " were good; but is n't 
the author a conceited, egotistical wretch ! But was n't 
I living over college and Easthampton days when I read 
Ik Marvel's pastorals ! I could most hear the bees humming 
round the Castilian fount. Do you want to know how we 
are living in the woods? Well, we have scarce nothing at 
all for breakfast, and have the leavings for supper. We have 
become ardent students of botany, but it is trees we study, 
and in proportion as the shells fly thick so do we hug and 
admire some thick and sturdy magnolia. Yes, "paradoxical 
as it may appear," the larger the specimen, the greater our 
admiration. I am now acting adjutant. I am happy to 
report that I have been promoted to first lieutenant. 
In the bonds of Antiquity, 

H. H. GooDELL, Daddy. 

The use of the word "paradoxical" here is an illustration 
of the fact that nothing ludicrous ever escaped his notice. 



62 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

One of the tutors, while conducting devotional services in 
the College Chapel, in his prayer waded into the deep 
waters of theology, lost his foothold and slipped in all over, 
and after floundering about for a while came to the surface 
with a statement in flat contradiction to what he had been 
saying. But he took in the situation and very dexterously 
extricated himself by saying: "Paradoxical as it may seem, 
oh, Lord!" This was too much for Goodell; he never en- 
tirely recovered from the shock and " Paradoxical as it may 
appear" became with him a favorite phrase, good on all 
occasions and for all purposes. 

June 23 he writes to a classmate: — 



Before Port Hudson, June 23d, 1863. 

There have been two especial reasons for my not writing 
you before. One is that we have been told no soldiers' 
letters are allowed to leave for the North, and the other is 
that I have delayed hoping to write you of the fall of this 
stronghold; but still the siege drags its slow length along. 
Our days are divided betwixt rifle-pits, making assaults, and 
repelling sallies. The rebs hold their rifle-pits and we ad- 
vance ours or remain stationary. Yesterday the colored 
brigade carried a hill by storm and have held it, notwith- 
standing the repeated and great efforts made by the rebs 
to retain it. Sunday, June 14, we attacked the fort at three 
points but were beaten back with a frightful loss. It was 
perfect murder, the way affairs were managed ; where we 
charged at the centre, instead of creeping round the base 
of the hill and starting a few yards from the breastworks, 
they made us charge over a hill, down through the ravine 



SOLDIER 63 

and up the next side. The consequence was we were exposed 
to a sweeping fire and everything got jumbled and mixed 
up, so that by the time the ditch was reached there were 
parts of eight or ten regiments in the direst confusion, 
without head or tail. It took several hours to straighten 
matters out, and just as we were ready to go at them 
again the order was countermanded. We lay there in the 
burning sun until night, and then withdrew with our 
wounded and dead under cover of the darkness. Ah, Dick, 
these Sunday attacks are worse than useless! They are 
criminal. It was with a heavy heart I went in on the 14th, 
for I felt we could do nothing. 

General Banks has now called for a thousand volunteers, 
with officers, to lead in storming the works. Old Daddy has 
volunteered, not from any desire of reputation or honor, 
I assure you, but only because there seemed to be a lack of 
officers and it seemed my duty to go. It is a desperate 
undertaking, but I am in the hands of One who is able to 
avert the deadly missiles if he sees fit. Captain Allen of 
the 31st Massachusetts was wounded but slightly on Sun- 
day, and Clary of '61 was killed. Captain Bliss of the 52d 
Massachusetts was badly wounded and has subsequently 
died. Ceph Gunn and Frank Stearns are all right, but Jut 
Kellogg and Severance are both sick in New Orleans and 
have not been up here at all during the siege. I had a letter 
from Pater Gridley the other day. He is still in Baltimore. 
Wishes to meet some of the fellows this summer, but I do 
not expect (if I am alive and well) to reach home before 
September for our time is not out until the 11th of August. 
However, nothing preventing, I shall make a tour among 
the fellows when I get back. Along with your letter I got 



64 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

a nice one from old Stebs the other day. ... I have re- 
ceived five or six Springfields [" Republican"] lately from 
Charlie. Tell him I will try and write him soon. I am so 
glad Mase [M. W. Tyler] and Rufe [R. P. Lincoln] came 
out of their baptism of fire and blood safely. God preserve 
them to the end ! My kindest remembrances to Professor 
and Mrs. Tyler when you see them. I see by the papers 
that the Faculty are up and preparing for themselves man- 
sions in Amherst. What demon of extravagance has seized 
them in these war times? — Confound these flies! I can't 
write any more. They are the greatest pests going. There 
is no putting off their importunity. 

With ever so much love, in bonds of antiquity and '62, 

Daddy, H. H. Goodell. 

The newspaper reporters soon got hold of the list of 
volunteers and of course it was given to the winds. On the 
26th of June he wrote the following letter to his brother-in- 
law, Mr. James Bird of Hartford : — 

"For fear Abbie and Eliza should see in the papers my 
name among the list of those who have volunteered to 
storm the works of Port Hudson, I will write to you of it 
myself. I did not intend you should any of you know any- 
thing about it till it was all over, but some confounded news- 
paper correspondent has got hold of the list. If it is a pos- 
sible thing, keep the list out of Ehza and Abbie's hands. 
It will only cause them unavailing anxiety. I have volun- 
teered, and also, because there was a lack of officers, to lead. 
I assure you no other considerations would have induced 
me to put my name down. I trust it was nothing but a 
clear case of duty that impelled me to take this step. The 



SOLDIER 65 

charge will probably take place in a day or two, and I will 
try and write as soon as possible afterwards. In the event 
of my falling I have prepared a letter with some slight 
instructions about my things which I have placed in the 
hands of Quartermaster Ives. He has kindly promised to 
look after my traps here and bring them to Hartford on the 
return of the regiment. 

"There is nothing particular going on justnow. Yesterday 
the rebs made a charge on the centre, endeavoring to cap- 
ture Terry's marine battery, but they were repulsed with 
considerable loss. The darkies have behaved splendidly. 
Two days ago they carried some rifle-pits by storm, and 
ever since there has been sharp fighting, the rebs making 
ineffectual attempts to regain them. We are all in good 
health and spirits and hope for a speedy termination of 
this terrible conflict. One of the 4th Wisconsin captured 
on the 14th of June escaped two or three days since, and 
he is to pilot us in. He represents them as having pro- 
visions for only a week longer. Would that they had them 
for only a day! 

"Please send this letter to William [his brother] when you 
have perused it, and do as you think best about letting 
A. and E. see it; but it would be better if they could know 
nothing of the storming-party till it was over. Colonel 
Birge leads us in person and General Grover leads a strong 
suppport." 

This body of men was made up principally from New Eng- 
land and New York regiments, with something like a hun- 
dred and sixty from the Corps d' Afrique . "Two regiments 
in this corps, the First and Third Louisiana Guards, ex- 
pressed their willingness to go. But a selection was made." 



66 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

What position Lieutenant Goodell held is not known. On 
June 28, the colonel commanding, H. W. Birge, informed 
General Banks that the organization was complete. "I 
have to report that the volunteers for the storming column 
are organized in two battalions of eight companies each, 
strength of company about 50 enlisted men; three and 
in some cases four, commissioned oflScers to a company. 
Battalion oflScers are, to each, one Ueutenant-colonel com- 
manding, two majors or acting as such, one adjutant, one 
quartermaster. One surgeon (from One hundred and Six- 
teenth New York) has reported. Present strength for duty 
is, Commissioned oflScers 67, enlisted men 826. Total 
893."! 

These men had had two, and some of them three, dread- 
ful experiences in charging earthworks within a few days, 
and yet they were willing to assault those same works 
again. "The stormers" as they were called were gathered 
in a camp by themselves and put on a regimen calculated 
to promote physical strength, celerity of action, and en- 
durance. By every conceivable device did they prepare 
themselves for the work they were expected to do. They 
knew that all the arrangements for their support had been 
made, but the expected order did not come. 

If ever a body of men deserved recognition from their 
country this column of stormers did. From June 18 to 
July 8 they waited for the word that meant death to many 
of them. General Gardner, the Confederate commander in 
Port Hudson, knew of their existence and confessed that 
he dreaded their assault. Some twenty years afterwards 
the subject of the medal promised in the general order 
1 41 W. R., 603. 



SOLDIER 67 

was brought to the attention of Congress, and although it 
was eloquently championed by the Hon. Henry Cabot 
Lodge, the House of Representatives refused to make the 
required appropriation on the ground that the men did 
not make the charge. A man who is willing to engage in a 
service of peculiar peril for his country in her hour of need, 
and waits twenty days in hourly expectation of the call to 
discharge that duty, it would seem, ought to have some 
recognition of his willingness to serve; for in this case, it 
was not his fault that he did not make the terrible exposure 
of all that man holds dear in life. 

On July 4, Goodell wrote his last letter from Port Hud- 
son. As will be seen, he had no idea of what was going on 
two hundred and forty miles up the river at Vicksburg, 
or fifteen hundred miles away at Gettysburgo At Vicks- 
burg General Grant was quietly smoking a cigar as he 
wrote a dispatch to be sent to Cairo to be telegraphed to 
the General in Chief at Washington: "The enemy surren- 
dered this morning. The only terms allowed is their pa- 
role as prisoners of war." The same dispatch was sent to 
General Banks. At Gettysburg the Army of the Potomac 
had inflicted a terrible defeat on the Army of Northern 
Virginia. 

Port Hudson, July 4, 1863. 

I verily believe this is the quietest, most matter-of-fact 
4th of July I ever spent; positively not as much powder 
burnt as in New York or Boston; yea, verily, Hartford it- 
self, with its swarms of ragged brats, can outstrip us. All 
is supremely quiet along the lines. Every now and then a 
boom, a bang and the bursting of a shell, for we must keep 



68 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

the besieged from falling asleep and stir them up occa- 
sionally. Then pop goes a rebel; anon some white-eyed 
ebony "t'inks he sees suffin' moving on dat ar hill," and ac- 
cordingly lets drive; or perchance some red-breeched Zou- 
ave, spying a mule wandering round in the fortifications, 
swears by the beard of Mahomet he '11 spoil the rebel beef, 
and forthwith downs the critter. Noon. The music is be- 
coming lively, the gun-boats are walking in and the batteries 
are pitching in, and altogether we are giving them "Hail 
Columbia," to the tune of "Yankee Doodle." 

For the last fortnight we have been in an enviable frame 
of mind expecting each day to be ordered the next to par- 
ticipate in another general assault, but the orders have not 
come and each night we have drawn a long breath and said 
one more day of grace. "Very improper, Jane!" Well so 
it is, but while we are sp'iling for a fight we have a singular 
desire to avoid charging on the breastworks. We've seen 
the elephant, some of us four times, and each time have got 
bitten. On the 1st General Banks made us a stunning 
speech, assuring us that within three days Port Hudson 
should be ours; but the three days have waxed and waned 
and those confounded rebels still persist in keeping us out 
in the cold (a figure of speech, as it is the dog-days with a 
vengeance). There is no mistake about it; the rebs are 
mighty short off for provisions, and though the fortifi- 
cations could probably now be stormed any day, yet why 
waste life when a few days will fetch the recreants to their 
milk? They are reduced now to mule-meat and a little 
corn. Deserters come in thick and fast. One day as many 
as a hundred came over, vowing they could n't stand mule- 
meat. I feel confident in my next of being able to take up the 



SOLDIER 69 

triumphs over the fall of Port Hudson. General Gardner, 
who commands, was a West Pointer with Generals Grover 
and Goodin, and they were together at the time the war 
broke out, as captain and lieutenants in the 10th Regiment 
at some frontier fort. Gardner sent in his resignation and 
immediately deserted (well knowing the penalty), leaving 
his wife behind. General Grover escorted her in safety to 
the north, and she has since rejoined her husband in Louisi- 
ana. She is now residing in Opelousas. When we were 
there General Grover called upon her. She expressed the 
hope that he might not be called upon to meet Frank in 
battle, but that appears to be a hope not realized. Since 
coming here the two former companions in arms have 
met during the flag of truce. The rebs army use our rear 
continually. Their cavalry from Clinton and Jackson 
hover about, striking here and there, and picking up 
stragglers and forage parties. Day before yesterday they 
dashed into Springfield Landing, whence we draw all our 
stores and ammunition from New Orleans; but our cavalry 
were after them so sharp that they found pressing business 
elsewhere, and could only stop a few minutes. On the other 
side of the river quite a force has come down. They at- 
tacked Donaldsonville (of white-petticoat memory) a few 
days ago, demanding the surrender of the town and the 
fort, but the spirited provost-marshal, gathering together 
his forces amounting to about one hundred, got inside his 
fortifications and bid them come on. The unequal contest 
was kept up from midnight till daylight, when the sudden 
appearance of a gun-boat caused the rebs to skedaddle leav- 
ing a hundred dead on the field, several hundred wounded 
and one hundred and twenty prisoners, including one 



70 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

colonel, two majors, four captains and several lieutenants.^ 
Our loss was exceedingly small. Since then the little garri- 
son has been strengthened. 

Now comes the cream of everything. The rebs have got 
into Bayou Boeuf and captured or destroyed the whole of 
our division property there stored. Tents, baggage, knap- 
sacks, company and regimental books, all swept away. 
We are all as poor as Job's turkey, or as that unfortunate 
damsel who had "nothing to wear." Except the rags that 
cover us we have not a thing. In common with the other 
officers, I have lost my blankets, overcoat, valise, dress- 
uniform and sash, and a hundred little knick-knacks picked 
up here and there. Were we near you I should write a feel- 
ing address to the soldiers' aid society for some pocket- 
handkerchiefs, being reduced to the last shift, that is the 
flap of an ancient shirt picked up in a deserted mansion. 
The adjutant has now returned to duty. I have gone back 
to my own company, or rather the first three, A. F. and D. 
being without officers, have been consolidated with F, and 
Captain Napheys and myself are in command. From Colo- 
nel Bissell we heard not long since. He is slowly and steadily 
improving, and we are hoping to count the days before 
we can welcome our colonel back. We have missed him 

* The incident here alluded to ought not to be forgotten. The provost- 
marshal. Major H. M. Porter, reports, that "at 1.30 on the morning of 
the 28th, the enemy, about 5,000 strong, attacked both the fort and the 
gunboat, with infantry and artillery, and continued fighting until 4.80 
A.M. There were about 180 men in the Fort and this was the first engage- 
ment of most of them. Nobly did the officers and men acquit themselves." 
The loss of the enemy he puts at probably 350 killed and wounded. In 
short the little garrison, with the gun-boat, put hors de combat about 
twice their own number. 41 W. R. 205. 



SOLDIER 71 

sadly. But I really believe his sickness has saved his life. 
He never would have come out alive from the charge the 
regiment made on the 27th of May. 

We are having just the tallest kind of dog-days. We 
spend all our time in trying to keep cool. You would laugh 
if you could see us at meals, in simply shirt and drawers, 
while our respected colored boy, Oliver, squats on his heels 
in front of us and keeps off the flies from our precious per- 
sons. This same Ohver is a case. Speaking of Mobile the 
other day he said, "Reckon you couldn't feel dis nigga 
much in dat are town; specks he was born and raised dere, 
yah, yah, yah! Reckons he knows ebry hole dere from 
de liquor-shops to de meeting houses," etc. 

We see by the papers Pennsylvania is again in danger. 
Were we only home, some of us would again be up a-girding 
on our armor and be marching along. But we trust you 
will do it without our aid and the Southerners will get so 
blessedly licked they won't know which end they are 
standing on. 

Excuse this scrawl, but being a little under the weather 
have been writing lying flat on my back. 
As ever with love, 

Henry. 

I have got some potatoes, 10 cents, a bit of mackerel, 
and a couple of bottles of porter, and mean to celebrate the 
4th to-night. 

Three days after this letter was written, the dispatch 
from General Grant, just referred to, was received. The 
booming of great guns, the cheers of the Union soldiers and 
strains of patriotic music informed the besieged that some- 



72 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

thing had happened, and they were not slow to divine the 
cause of the rejoicing. General Gardner sent under a flag 
of truce to General Banks to know if the report that Vicks- 
burg had fallen was true, and received in reply a copy of 
General Grant's dispatch. The garrison had done their 
duty with courageous fortitude. The Union lines were al- 
ready in many places up to their breastworks, starvation 
was already beginning to pinch, and should the expected 
assault be delivered it would be a waste of life, for they 
could not expect to hold their position. The 8th was spent 
in arranging the terms of surrender, and on the 9th "The 
Stormers" led the advance as the victorious army en- 
tered Port Hudson to put the stars and stripes in the place 
of the stars and bars. President Lincoln's long-deferred 
hope was realized, and he could now say, "The Father of 
Waters again goes unvexed to the sea." 

The time of the nine-months' men was soon to expire and 
the 25th Connecticut left almost immediately for New Or- 
leans, but was detained at Donaldsonville for a few days. 
The following letter will state the reason. 

Donaldsonville, July, 1863. 

Once more, O Dick, at Donaldsonville. Three months 
ago, March 29th, on Sunday, I received an epistle from 
thee, and lo ! on my second advent, on a Sunday, a second 
missive reaches me. To thy lares and penates I decree a 
hecatomb. Accept, my rustic pedagogue, my humble 
oflfering. You at the North are probably in a frenzy of ex- 
citement, we at the South have learned to take things cool, 
although the "canicula damnosa reigns supreme"; a phrase 
which, being translated into the vernacular a la H. W. 



SOLDIER 73 

Beecher, signifieth "damned hot." Vicksburg, the stum- 
bling-block to glory, hath fallen, Port Hudson hath caved 
in. Lee and his army have gone to one eternal smash. 

Port Hudson has scarcely gone under when we are called 
to take the field again. The confounded rebs don't know 
how to stay whipped, and General Taylor, reenforced by 
General Magruder's Texicans, has again taken the field. 
He attacked us at Donaldsonville with a force in propor- 
tion to ours as 50 to 1, and got soundly thrashed. We, 
strongly reenforced, came out to meet him and got licked, 
and so the matter rests at present. It was a disgraceful 
affair our getting licked a week ago. The commanding 
colonel of the brigade suffered himself to be flanked through 
carelessness, being dead drunk, and they had to fall back 
with the loss of two cannon. Our brigade was on the reserve; 
we fell in and double-quicked it to the rescue, but too late, 
for they were in full retreat. A new line of battle was formed 
and the 25th was deployed and sent forward as skirmishers, 
but beyond a shot or two, we failed of falling in with the 
scoundrels. So after advancing about three quarters of a 
mile through the corn, we were ordered back and our whole 
force fell back about one quarter of a mile, where we oc- 
cupied, and still hold, a strong position. The rebs meanwhile 
have skedaddled, but are probably fortifying at Laborde- 
ville, distant some twenty miles. What we are delaying 
here for, I can't imagine, unless it is to give time to a part 
of our forces to get in their rear. I hope it is so. By the 
way, I am happy to inform you that. Colonel Bissell being 
in command of the brigade, I have been appointed one of 
his staff as aide. 

Dick, I must say that though I volunteered on the storm- 



74 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

ing party at Port Hudson, yet it gives me great pleasure not 
to have my services required. Those works were con- 
foundedly strong, and one half or two thirds of us would 
have paid the penalty of our attempt with our lives. War 
is not the glorious thing it's cracked up to be. Though we 
get used to all kinds of horrid sights, yet we can't get per- 
fectly calloused. I could tell you some things that would 
fairly make your blood curdle with horror. I will omit all 
description as that is best learnt in familiar discourse. 

The 25th Connecticut regiment, after one of the most 
trying campaigns of the war, was now to take another sea 
voyage and was mustered out at Hartford, August 26, 1863. 
Scant justice has been done to the Nineteenth Corps. The 
field of their action while in Louisiana was far away, and, 
until the fall of Port Hudson, was cut off from the North 
except by the sea. The public attention was absorbed by 
the operations in the states along the border, and even their 
great victory at Port Hudson was eclipsed and looked upon 
as a consequence of the fall of Vicksburg. But they did 
a great deal of hard fighting, and made hundreds of miles 
of hard marching in a cUmate to which the men were not 
accustomed. 

Goodell had entered the regiment as second lieutenant, 
but he had acted in many capacities. He had officiated as 
first lieutenant in his own and other companies, had often 
discharged the function of captain, and had acted as ad- 
jutant of the regiment. He was promoted to first lieutenant 
on the 14th of April, and became aide-de-camp on the staff 
of Colonel Bissell, commanding the 3d Brigade of the 4th 
Division, on the 8th of July. 



SOLDIER 75 

He said little about his army experience after he came 
home, and seldom spoke of it even to his own family. Oc- 
casionally some incident would bring out a scrap of his 
experience. The following will serve to illustrate the stories 
he sometimes told. Some years ago, but long after the War, 
at an educational convention at Baton Rouge, his next 
neighbor at the banquet said to him, "This country is new 
to you.''" — "No," said Goodell, "I served in Louisiana in 
'62 and '63, and was at the siege of Port Hudson." The 
gentleman said that he was taken prisoner there by a com- 
missioned officer. Goodell asked if he remembered the 
officer's name and regiment, to which the gentleman re- 
plied: "Yes, it was Lieutenant Goodell of the 25th Con- 
necticut." — "Then," said Goodell, "You are Captain 

." "How do you know that?" asked the gentleman 

with some surprise. "Because I am the Lieutenant Goodell 
you speak of." Their last meeting was undoubtedly much 
more pleasant, especially to the Confederate gentleman, 
than their first. 

There is every evidence that he discharged his duty as 
a soldier with ability and with a high sense of loyalty to the 
cause he loved and to his superior officers. He never was 
absent from his company for twelve consecutive hours, 
except on duty, from the time the regiment was mustered 
into the service until it was mustered out. His idea of 
a soldier, of his calling, the principles he ought to hold, 
the duties he ought to be ready to discharge, and the senti- 
ment which should animate his conduct on all occasions, 
is stated, perhaps unconsciously, in his address at the 
memorial services of Captain Walter Mason Dickinson, 
which is given in this volume. 



76 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Of him personally one of his fellow officers of higher 
rank. Major Thomas McManus, writes: "His whole life, 
his whole conduct during our army experience, was so con- 
sistent and admirable that I am actually puzzled to dis- 
sect from it any special detail to memorize as an incident or 
saying even. You know he never was oracular. He never 
posed. He simply did everything perfectly and easily. I 
actually think that, if he tumbled off a roof, he would have 
done it gracefully. He never once complained, however 
great the hardship, on the march or in action. He never 
adversely criticised another officer, or harshly reproved a 
private, or murmured at a privation. He was on duty where 
he belonged, all the while. Nothing spasmodic in his service, 
but when an emergency did arise at Port Hudson, that 
called for volunteers for the Forlorn Hope, he was with the 
very first to offer himself for a service that promised nothing 
but death as a result. Thank God, the service after all was 
not required ! 

"He was everything good that could be desired in a sol- 
dier and he was so all the time. You may portray in him 
every admirable quality that man can possess and you may 
rival Chrysostom himself in eloquence, yet you cannot 
exaggerate, hardly equal his deserts." 

After the experience in the army he took a year to re- 
cuperate. He did not care to study any of the professions, 
and it is safe to say that then he had no idea what his work 
in the world would be; but he did not merely vegetate, nor 
was he "waiting for something to turn up." Hard work 
was mingled with recreation. A good deal of time is given 
to the study of German, or as he puts it, "studying high 
Dutch, low Dutch and German, three variations of the 



SOLDIER 77 

Teutonic"; and he does not find the mixture palatable. 
He dips into literature, both grave and gay; reads Charles 
Lamb's works with great delight; Renan's "Life of Jesus," 
— finds the author "an arrant doubter," and wants a good 
review of him. Ticknor's "Life of Prescott" he thinks 
"capital." "That's a curious thought," he writes, "that 
Prescott expresses in a letter to Ticknor on the greater 
di£Bculty of representing happiness than misery, and the 
faultiness of the Scripture in that respect, offering nothing 
but singing and dancing as the happiness of Heaven, an idea 
which he says to many would be positively disagreeable. 
I can't help laughing every time I think of it, and yet the 
criticism is just." He reads Kirk's "Charles the Bold" 
and finds it as fascinating as a novel, and is interested in 
the articles in the "North American Review," especially in 
the one on McClellan; thinks "it uses him up most com- 
pletely as a politician and a soldier." The article was by 
James Russell Lowell. 

To turn to the other side of his nature — he keeps in close 
touch with his classmates, especially with those in the army. 
He hears that one of them (Captain Rufus P. Lincoln, of 
the 37th Massachusetts, afterwards a distinguished surgeon 
in New York) had been wounded, and writes : "Those boys ! 
I am thinking of them all the time. May they come out 
safe from these horrid battles! I am as uneasy as a fish 
out of water here at home, lying round like an old cow at my 
ease and all these brave fellows periling their lives." He paid 
flying visits to those of his class who were near him, and 
writes of one after another, "the same good fellow as ever." 
He calls on his "beloved D.D." at Cambridge, and informs 
him by letter that he "found the Theologi-cuss out." 



78 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

In the fall of 1864, he received and accepted an invitation 
to return to his old preparatory school, Williston Seminary, 
Easthampton, as teacher of modern languages and instruc- 
tor in gymnastics. For this work he was well equipped, and 
had time to devote to favorite studies, for he was begin- 
ning to have something like a passion for books. 

While teaching at Easthampton he was associated with 
such men as General Francis A.Walker, M. F. Dickinson, 
Charles M. Lamson, Judson Smith, and Charles H. Park- 
hurst. It was indeed a brilliant and inspiring corps of 
teachers, such as any institution has a right to be proud of. 
Goodell seems oftener than occasionally to have disturbed 
the gravity and decorum of the faculty meetings by his 
remarks, although Dr. Henshaw, the principal, did not 
always perceive the suggestiveness of Goodell's sugges- 
tions. There was once a proposition made to appoint some 
member of the Faculty to do some particular duty, and 
Goodell said, with that peculiar innocence of which he was 
consummate master: "Dr. Henshaw, if you want a man who 
possesses both the suaviter in modo and the fortiter in re, I 
would suggest the name of " 



Ill 

EDUCATOR 

During the last decade of the eighteenth century the 
attention of many thoughtful and far-seeing men was di- 
rected to creating a more intelligent culture of the soil. This 
resulted in the formation of the Massachusetts Society for 
the Promotion of Agriculture, in 1796. Through the influ- 
ence of this organization, societies of a similar purpose were 
organized in the various counties of the Commonwealth, 
and cattle-shows and horse-shows became a feature of the 
industrial life of the people. Public-spirited and wealthy 
men offered prizes for the best products of the farm, and 
subscribed money to collect and diffuse information on 
matters pertaining to agriculture. 

The printing-press was called into requisition, and on the 
2nd of August, 1818, "The American Farmer" was pub- 
lished at Baltimore; three years later came "The Plough 
Boy" (spelled Plow'Boy), published at Albany; the follow- 
ing year "The New England Farmer" appeared in Boston; 
and soon papers devoted to this subject appeared in many 
localities. As the nineteenth century advanced men began 
to talk of schools of agriculture. Prominent educators, hke 
Edward Hitchcock of Amherst, a man of great practical 
wisdom, advocated the teaching of this great branch of in- 
dustry in academies and colleges, and as early as 1843 the 
Trustees of Amherst College appointed Charles U. Shep- 
ard, Professor of Agricultural Chemistry and Mineralogy. 



80 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

The governors of states recommended to the legislatures 
to take such action as would advance this great utility. 
Our presidents have recommended the subject to the con- 
sideration of Congress. Washington, who, whatever he was 
besides, was a farmer by nature, took a deep interest in 
this subject, and in his last annual message recommended 
to Congress that appropriations should be made, to en- 
courage an interest in it. President JeflPerson in his first in- 
augural, when enumerating the objects of government, 
puts the encouragement of agriculture among them. But 
so negligent had Congress been in fostering the interests 
of this great phase of the national life, that President Lin- 
coln, in his first annual message December 3, 1861, said 
that "Agriculture, confessedly the largest interest of the 
nation, has not a department, nor even a bureau, but a 
clerkship only, assigned to it in the government. While 
I make no suggestions as to details, I venture the opinion 
that an agricultural and statistical bureau might profit- 
ably be organized." In pursuance of this suggestion Con- 
gress passed an act May 4, 1862, creating a Bureau of 
Agriculture. The President immediately set about organ- 
izing it and refers to it in all his annual messages; and in 
the very last one he speaks of it as "peculiarly the people's 
department, in which they feel more directly concerned than 
in any other. I commend it to the continued attention 
and fostering care of Congress." 

The next step in the national recognition of the import- 
ance of agriculture was an act of Congress, February 11, 
1889, making the bureau a department, and the commis- 
sioner a secretary, with a seat in the President's cabinet. 

While these steps were being taken by the national 



EDUCATOR 81 

government, thoughtful and progressive men of high stand- 
ing and character were urging with eloquent earnestness 
that education in agriculture was as important as education 
in the so-called liberal professions. But as Walter Bagehot 
has said, "One of the greatest pains to human nature is the 
pain of a new idea. It is, as common people say, 'so up- 
setting, it makes you think that, after all, your favorite 
notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs unfounded.' " ^ 
But the whole subject was put in a new light by the Hon. 
Justin S. Morrill, then a representative in Congress from 
Vermont, himself a farmer's boy, then a merchant, and 
afterwards a farmer. He brought in, December 14, 1857, a 
bill devoting large areas of the pubhc lands to the states 
which should within a given time establish colleges for 
the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts. The bill 
passed the House by a vote of 105 to 100. Some thirteen 
months afterward, on February 7, 1859, it passed the Sen- 
ate by a vote of 25 to 22. President Buchanan returned it 
to the House with a long veto message, the sum and sub- 
stance of which was stated in the first sentence: "I deem 
it to be both inexpedient and unconstitutional." 

The fact that such a bill had passed both houses of Con- 
gress gave new inspiration to the friends of the movement, 
and it is said that in the next contest for the presidency 
two of the leading candidates, Mr. Lincoln and Judge Doug- 
las, were pledged to favor the bill. The people now began 
to talk of agricultural colleges, and two of the states went 
forward and established them. 

Mr. Morrill, on December 13, 1861, again presented his 
bill. It passed both houses, and on July 2, 1862, received 
^ Physics and Politics, 163. 



82 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

the sanction of President Lincoln and became a law. This 
bill, known as the Morrill Act, had a tremendous influence 
upon agricultural education. Mr. Morrill lived to see in- 
stitutions of this kind established and sustained by this 
act in every state of the Union. 

This law was strengthened by the "Hatch Bill "approved 
by President Cleveland, March 2, 1886, creating experiment 
stations in connection with the land-grant colleges; and 
four years later, Senator Morrill brought in a bill, approved 
by President Harrison, August 30, 1890, for a more com- 
plete endowment of the land-grant colleges. All the bills 
for the advancement of industrial education were cham- 
pioned by the practical wisdom and consummate tact of 
Mr. Morrill; and he will stand at the bar of history as 
one of our greatest national benefactors. 

A gentleman was once introduced to Mr. Morrill as a 
friend of President Goodell, and the Senator, taking his 
hand in both his own, said, with an earnestness not to be 
mistaken, " I congratulate you sir, most heartily, on having 
such a man for your friend." When George F. Hoar pub- 
lished his "Autobiography of Seventy Years," the attention 
of President Goodell was called to the chapter on some of 
the Senators with whom Mr. Hoar had served. After read- 
ing it he wrote : "All this is very beautiful, but as I went on 
from one splendid characterization to another, I began to 
fear that he would get exhausted and break down before 
he got to Senator Morrill. But he rose to the occasion. It 
was the last, and fine as the others were, this was the best of 
all. It was beautiful beyond any words of mine to describe, 
and it is as true as it is beautiful. It is a mystery to me how 
a man could write such a chapter as that." 



EDUCATOR 83 

President Goodell had occasion often to consult with 
Senator Morrill, but unfortunately little that passed be- 
tween them in writing has as yet been discovered. 

The story is too long to be told here of the many sugges- 
tions and plans which engaged the attention and occupied 
the minds of men, which eventually led up to the estab- 
lishment of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. It will 
be sufficient to say that in his annual message to the Gen- 
eral Court, January 6, 1865, Governor Andrew announced 
that the Massachusetts Agricultural College had been lo- 
cated at Amherst, and added: "I beg to commend the sub- 
ject of agricultural education, and the patronage of this 
institution of the State to your liberahty. I should deeply 
regret to see an institution which bears the name of Massa- 
chusetts and will be held to be representative of the Com- 
monwealth, especially of the highest aspirations of her 
yeomanry, allowed, for want of generous support, to de- 
generate into a mere industrial school." 

In his concluding remarks on this subject his Excellency 
states the spirit in which the Commonwealth should pursue 
the work she has begun; and his words so completely de- 
scribe the feelings which animated President Goodell in 
his long ser\ace at the institution then inaugurated that 
they may be quoted as eminently applicable to him and 
his work : — 

"When the Commonwealth touches such a subject, she 
ought to feel herself to be like the priestess, advancing to 
handle the sacred symbols, and on holy ground. She should 
remember her own dignity, the immortaUty always pos- 
sible to states, the error of which she is the promoter here- 
after, if she commits herself to error now, the boundless 



84 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

scope of her good influence, the millions of men on whom 
her influence may be made to tell through all the ampli- 
tudes of space and time. When I contemplate such a sub- 
ject, the reason is content to yield to the imagination. I 
remember the photograph, the magnetic telegraph, the 
discovery of vaccination, the painless operations of surgery, 
— the triumphs, the miracles of genius. I seem to see, for 
the Earth herself and her cultivators, the coming time, 
when husbandry, attended by all the ministries of science 
and art, shall illumine and rejuvenate her countenance, 
and recreate our life below." 

Notwithstanding the magnificent appeal of his Excel- 
lency the Governor, the inauguration of the new college 
dragged slowly on until the election of William Smith Clark 
to the presidency in 1867. Clark was by nature and culture 
a man of science. He had for several years been professor 
of chemistry and had also occupied the chairs of botany 
and zoology in Amherst College. He had made a brilliant 
record in the Civil War, as Colonel of the Twenty-First 
Massachusetts Volunteers, and had had some experience 
in poHtical life. He brought to his new duties fine abilities 
as an organizer and administrator, was possessed by an en- 
thusiasm, founded on moral convictions, that a great work 
could be done, of lasting benefit to the people, and that he 
could help do it. He wielded a graceful pen, possessed ad- 
mirable powers of persuasion and a knowledge of men 
which came both by instinct and a large experience of the 
world. He was emphatically a man of affairs and knew how 
to meet men. 

The unexpected is among the certainties in the lives of 
men. "No man," said Oliver Cromwell, to the agents 



EDUCATOR 85 

of Henrietta Maria, who were sounding him as to his am- 
bitions, "no man ever climbs so high as the man who does 
not know where he is going." We left Goodell quietly 
teaching at Williston Seminary, with perhaps no idea of any 
change in his position in life, at least for the present, and 
certainly no idea of the change that was about to come. 
But President Clark's eye was upon him. At an Alumni 
dinner of the Agricultural College in 1886, while he was 
acting as president, he was called upon to speak of Presi- 
dent Clark, who had recently died, and in his remarks he 
indulged in a bit of personal reminiscence. He said: "It 
was in the summer of 1867 that I received a brief note from 
him [Clark] asking me to come to Amherst and see him. 
No building had as yet been erected, and the several farms 
of which the college property was composed had not yet 
been thrown into one. Leading me out into the fields, 
very near where South College now stands, he unfolded his 
plans, and turning to me with his hand on my shoulder 
said: 'There is a great and glorious work to be done. Will 
you come and help?' And what could I do with that eye 
looking straight into mine and that hand resting on my 
shoulder, but say, 'I will'?" 

To be in at the beginning of a new movement, or a new 
departure from the beaten track of common experience, 
which proves successful, is a matter of congratulation when 
success has been attained. But it requires more courage 
than men usually get credit for, to start with a movement 
that is in advance of the common thought, when there is 
liability that one may be buried in the ruins of the under- 
taking. The new college had not only to face ignorant 
prejudice, but it had the more difficult task of vindicating 



86 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

its right to be, and this was no easy matter, for the results 
of its work might not be manifest for years to come. 

The Faculty of those early days was not a formidable 
body in numbers. It consisted of the President, William 
S. Clark, Professor E. S. Snell, of Amherst College, teach- 
ing mathematics, Henry H. Goodell, Professor of Modern 
Languages and English Literature, and the farmer, Levi 
Stockb ridge, who gave instruction in agriculture. This was 
indeed rather a small crowd to face an indifferent and some- 
times hostile world; but indifference was to them far more 
dangerous than hostility. 

Goodell's department was very congenial to his feelings 
and tastes, especially English Literature. But during its 
early years the College, although a state institution, was 
handicapped in many ways. It was poor, and as a natural 
consequence its appliances were insufficient and the corps 
of teachers too small to meet the demands of even a small 
number of pupils; so that at the beginning some important 
branches of study were not provided with any instructors. 
Goodell seems to have been called upon to fill the gap. It 
seems almost impossible for a man to adjust himself to so 
many different relations. "He was instructor in military 
tactics and gymnastics from 1867 to 1869, lecturer on ento- 
mology in 1869, instructor in zoology from 1869 to 1871, in 
anatomy and physiology from 1869 to 1871 and again from 
1882 to 1883, instructor in rhetoric and English language 
from 1871 to 1873 and from 1883 to 1885, and in history 
from 1872 to 1883; and in addition to this he was secretary 
of the Faculty for four years, and librarian from 1885 to 
1899." 

Had all these branches of instruction been in accord 



EDUCATOR ; 87 

with his tastes, his work would have been very confining 
and laborious. But his tastes were literary rather than 
scientific. It is doubtful whether he really enjoyed any of 
the sciences, with the single exception of botany; but the 
work he did enabled him to grasp something more than the 
rudiments of the sciences as taught in the ordinary college 
course, and to understand the interdependence of the 
sciences and their federal relations to each other. This was 
of great importance to him in after life. It was a hard school, 
but no other could have better prepared him for his future 
work. It was with sufficient cause that Amherst College 
conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of 
Laws in 1891. 

While discharging these various duties he acted as sec- 
retary of his own class (the Class of '62 in Amherst Col- 
lege), and published in 1872 a little booklet giving an ac- 
count of all who had ever been connected with the class, 
telling how far each had advanced in the ten years since 
graduation in professional, commercial and matrimonial 
life. It was a tedious bit of work. His own description 
of the booklet is correct so far as the history of each one 
is concerned. "I have brought you up from the 'mewl- 
ing infant in the nurse's arms' to 'the lover sighing like a 
furnace, with a woful ballad to his mistress's eyebrow.'" 
But while his story of each one was told with fidelity and 
accuracy, his way of telling it was characteristic, both of 
himself and of the person of whom he wrote. In writing of 
one who had a genius for getting conditioned at the end 
of every term in Latin and Greek, he says: "He studied di- 
vinity, wrestling with the Hebrew, and prevailing mightily 
with the Greek." He gave the statistics of the professions 



88 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

and occupations of his classmates and over every list put 
a motto of his own choice. Heading the Hst of lawyers we 
have : — 

Here lies a lawyer, rude and bold: 

He by his trade subsisted. 

Reader, thiuk! How many lies the rascal must have told! 

Over the list of bachelors, and he was then among them, 
he put this bit of good advice : — 

Thanks, my good friends for your advice, 
But marriage is a thing so nice. 
That he who means to take a wife 
Had better think on 't all his life. 

Goodell acted not only as secretary of the class, but as 
treasurer, and was actively instrumental in raising money 
to establish a Class scholarship at Amherst College. It 
was a fund of two thousand dollars, the income of which 
was to aid indigent students. It was called the Henry 
Gridley Scholarship of the Class of '62, in Memory of a 
classmate. Lieutenant Henry Gridley of the 150th Regi- 
ment of New York Volunteers, who fell on June 22, 1864, 
in an engagement which General Sherman calls the "affair 
of the Kolb House, where the enemy received a terrible 
repulse." ^ 

Colonel Ketchum in his report of the battle says: "First 
Lieutenant Henry Gridley, a valuable officer, was killed in 
this engagement." ^ The scene of this battle was some three 
or four miles from Marietta, Georgia. 

After the death of President Goodell his classmates 
established another scholarship of equal value, called the 
Henry Hill Goodell Scholarship of the Class of '62. 
» W. R., 38, P. II, 68. 2 W. R., 88, P. ii, 79. 



EDUCATOR 89 

It is not a little singular that after all the contempt 
with which the ladies of the Crescent City treated him in 
'63, he should have won the hand and the heart of Helen E., 
daughter of John Stanton, of New Orleans. They were 
married December 10, 1873. This event was quickly fol- 
lowed by the establishment of a home. He was very happy 
in his home, which stood on rising ground overlooking 
the valley of the Connecticut. The outlook was delightful. 
The varied scenes of meadows and fields, of hills and the 
mountains beyond, had a restful influence upon his spirits. 
He had a sensitive ear for the sounds of Nature. He loved 
to listen to the gossiping of the wind with the leaves on the 
trees about his house, and he took great pleasure in the 
roar of the advancing storm, as it came up from the west, 
or down from the north. He would call attention to those 
moments of quiet, when Nature seemed to be listening, and 
he enjoyed the solemn stillness. Indeed, he had an eye to 
see, an ear to hear and a spirit to feel, "what he could n't 
near express but could not all conceal." "It is a delightful 
rest," he used to say, " to look on that landscape." The spot 
he chose for his home illustrates one side of his character. 

Their two children, both boys, were a great delight to 
him, and he always attributed their good conduct to the 
influence of their mother, who, he said, understood the art 
of inculcating good principles without making them dis- 
agreeable by tedious lectures ; but he would add with a smile, 
that he was sometimes afraid that the boys were not al- 
ways getting "the sincere milk of the Word." He lived to 
see one of them started in the world. Here is the introduc- 
tion his father gave him as he went out to try his hand in the 
affairs of real life. It was written to a college classmate, a 



90 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

life-long friend, an eminent lawyer practicing in New York 
City. 

Amherst, Mass., October 7, 1898. 

Colonel ]VL\.son W. Tyler, 
Plainfield, N. J. 

Dear Mason, — A boy — family name Goodell, Chris- 
tian name John — accompanies this letter. Just out of the 
Troy Polytechnic, but without experience. He is seeking a 
place into which he can thrust his lever and turn the world 
over. Civil-engineering his profession, railroading his de- 
light. He is seeking for some railroad magnate who will 
adopt an orphan, side-track him in some fat office where 
he can try his little lever. Do you know any such people 
to introduce him to? If you do, help him, and believe me 

Yours gratefully, 

H. H. Goodell. 

Although Goodell had little, if any, ambition to figure in 
political life, he was faithful in the discharge of his civic 
duties. He usually attended the caucus of his party, es- 
pecially in his early days, and while he never sought office, 
he was always ready to serve on committees where he 
thought he could be of any assistance. But at the Republi- 
can caucus held October 27, 1884, things were in some con- 
fusion, to say the least, and he was nominated to represent 
the then Fourth Hampshire District in the General Court, 
not as "a dark horse," but as a man whose personal pop- 
ularity was likely to unite conflicting interests and secure 
victory for the party at the polls. He declined the honor 
and refused positively to allow his name to be put in nomi- 



EDUCATOR 91 

nation against a gentleman who, he said, "h«ad been a father 
to him." But the caucus insisted uj)on its action, and before 
election day matters were so arranged that he accei)ted the 
nomination and of the 793 votes cast he received 517, or a 
majority of 241. It was fortunate that he was persuaded 
to withdraw his objections, for he was able to be of vastly 
greater service to the College in the hall of representatives 
at Boston, than he would have been in the recitation room 
at Amherst. 

The Legislature of 1885 was a very able body of men. 
Several of his associates attained eminence in political life 
and many were afterwards distinguished as men of affairs. 
Here he made the accpiaintance of men interested in indus- 
trial education, several of whom afterwards became trustees 
of the College. He served on the standing committee on 
education. This session of the legislatiu-e was really the 
turning point in the interests of the College. It has been 
said by one who had ample opportunity to know whereof 
he spoke, Hon. William R. Session, who was then serving 
as Senator and who was for many years Secretary of the 
Board of Agriculture and a trustee of the College: "I am 
convinced that the favorable change in the temper of the 
Massachusetts legislature toward the College, which set in 
at that time and has continued ever since, was very largely 
due to President Goodell's influence on the representative 
men from all over the state, with whom he was brought in 
contact during that season's service at the State House." 

During the winter South College was destroyed by fire, 
and the friends of the College were very much depressed ; but 
Goodell was equal to the exigencies of the case. He se- 
cured the necessary appropriations not only to rebuild and 



92 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

refit, but also to make improvements and repairs, amount- 
ing in all to fifty thousand dollars. This was a large sum 
for those times and a great triumph when we consider the 
f eehng against the College, which was widespread and quite 
strong. 

From that time Professor Goodell began to attract the 
attention of men interested in industrial education. When 
the presidency of the College became vacant, one of the 
trustees, on his way to Amherst, happened to meet at Palmer 
the Hon. Levi Stockbridge, a veteran agriculturist and ex- 
perimenter, and asked him whom they should elect as 
President? Mr. Stockbridge replied without a moment's 
hesitation: "If you choose Professor Goodell you will make 
no mistake." 

On the death of President Chadbourne in 1883, Professor 
Goodell was chosen acting president, and served in that 
capacity from February to September of that year. On the 
retirement of President Greenough, three years later, in 
1886, he was elected president. He was very reluctant to 
accept the position, but finally yielded to the solicitation 
of his friends and the friends of the CoUege; but he looked 
upon it as a temporary appointment and expected to be 
relieved at the end of the year, if not before. He had a very 
modest estimate of his own abilities and his success was 
always a mystery to him. But his resources were greater 
than he knew and were at once recognized by others. His 
health was not firm, and after serving for about nine months 
he sent the following letter to the trustees: — 



EDUCATOR 93 

Amherst, April 9, 1887. 

To the Honorable Board of Trustees of the Mass. 
Agr'l College: — 

Gentlemen, — I hereby tender my resignation of the 
Presidency of the Mass. Agr'l College, to take effect July 
1st, 1887. When you did me the honor last year to elect 
me to that position, I hesitated long before accepting it, 
feeling that my health was inadequate to the responsibili- 
ties and care attending it, and it was only at the earnest 
solicitation of my friends that I yielded. But I feel that my 
strength will not permit of this continued drain upon it, 
and that it is merely a question of time when I shall be 
compelled to lay down these duties. I therefore tender 
my resignation now, before the time comes when I can 
neither be a credit to yourselves nor to myself. Thanking 
you for the consideration and support I have rec'd at your 
hands, I am. 

Very faithfully yours, 

Henry H. Goodell. 

The letter was read at a meeting of the trustees held 
June 22, 1887; and they immediately referred the whole 
matter to the Committee on the Course of Study and 
Faculty, to confer with the President and report at an ad- 
journed meeting of the board to be called together at the 
option of the committee. The following Resolutions were 
then presented by Mr. Root and unanimously adopted : — 

"Whereas, we the Trustees of the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College one year ago unanimously elected Prof. 
Henry H. Goodell as President of the CoUege; and, Whereas, 
President Goodell has during the year just closed performed 



94 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

the many and arduous duties as the chief executive of the 
Institution with rare ability and eminent success, and to the 
entire satisfaction and hearty approval of this Board, and 
we believe of the entire Faculty, Alumni, students of the 
College, and the public at large; and. Whereas, it is with 
the most sincere regret that we have received his resigna- 
tion as President of the College, expressing a desire to be 
relieved from the Presidency of the Institution, therefore, 
Resolved, That we as trustees most earnestly request 
that President Goodell withdraw his resignation and con- 
tinue to act as President of the College, in which position 
he has done so much to bring it into complete, successful, 
harmonious, and effective working condition during the 
past year; that we pledge to him our hearty and earnest 
support in the future as in the past: that we pledge our- 
selves that we will do all that is possible to release him from 
some of the many duties that now rest upon him, trusting 
he will consent to withdraw his resignation. 

At a meeting of the Board held June 19, 1888, the Com- 
mittee on Course of Study and Faculty reported that Presi- 
dent Goodell had consented to withdraw his resignation 
upon the following terms: That he be relieved from the 
duty of instruction in declamation and composition with- 
out increase of work or decrease of compensation on the 
part of any other member of the Faculty. This proposi- 
tion was agreed to and President Goodell withdrew his 
resignation. 

Even with this amelioration of his labors the position 
was an exceedingly trying one. The College was as yet an 
experiment and had to prove its right to be. But the presi- 



EDUCATOR 95 

dent was equal to the emergencies as they came. He pos- 
sessed in a remarkable degree that important factor in deal- 
ing with men called "tact." There was httle of the dogmatic 
in his nature, although he had very decided opinions of his 
own and he valued them. He had great reverence for the 
past, for an institution, a custom, or an opinion 

That carries age so nobly in its looks; 

but with all he was progressive. The windows of his mind 
were opened not only toward Jerusalem but toward all 
points of the compass. He seems to have followed, perhaps 
unconsciously, Lord Bacon's advice: "Men in their inno- 
vations should follow the example of time itself, which in- 
novateth greatly, but quietly and by degrees scarce to be 
perceived." 

The new president understood the situation perfectly. 
The College was in a state whose leading industry was 
manufacturing and whose stingy soil could not compete 
with the plains of the West. The first enthusiasm of some 
of its early friends had subsided. The air was pervaded with 
the chill of disappointment and the proposition was made to 
give the College away. He knew perfectly well that it would 
be a long struggle to excite any enthusiasm in regard to it 
and to make the people feel its importance to one of the 
industries of the state. For long years he worked with ex- 
uberant cheerfulness and unabated enthusiasm, facing dis- 
couragements of every description. Proper buildings and 
apparatus were wanted, his teachers were overworked and 
underpaid, new problems were presenting themselves for 
which he was not prepared, the people were disappointed 
because they did not see immediate results and complained 



96 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

that the College educated men away from the farm and that 
comparatively few availed themselves of the opportunity 
it afforded to acquire an education. But he so managed 
affairs as to have the support and encouragement of an able 
and wise board of trustees, who had confidence in him and 
faith in the mission of the College, and he was backed by a 
corps of teachers after his own heart. But it was not until 
1896, twelve years after he assumed the presidency that he 
could report to the Governor and Council that, — 

"Reviewing the past, we cannot but feel that the stage 
of experiment is over and we enter upon this the first year of 
its fourth decade with quickened hope that from a broader 
foundation the College will continue to rise and fulfil its 
mission of providing that 'hberal and practical education 
that shall fit the industrial classes for the several pursuits 
and professions of fife.' " 

President Goodell believed with all the energy of his in- 
tellectual and moral nature that behind the farmer should 
be the educated man. Hence he was anxious to maintain 
a high standard of scholarship. But the class from which 
recruits are drawn for our agricultural colleges, as a general 
rule, is not the same as that which recruits our classical 
schools. A season of stringency in the money-market makes 
no perceptible difference in the number of students at our 
great academic institutions, but the case is very different 
with the agricultural colleges. Their ranks are recruited 
from families which often have little, if any, reserve capi- 
tal to fall back upon, and in times of stringency are com- 
pelled to retain their sons at home, or recall them to join 
the army of bread-winners. This want of reserve capital 
may account in part for the neglect of early training com- 



EDUCATOR 97 

plained of by President Goodell in one of his reports of the 
number of young men who had presented themselves but 
failed to pass the required examination. He remarks that 
"the ignorance displayed of the very rudiments of grammar 
and arithmetic would almost lead to the conclusion that 
the grammar school had been suppressed throughout the 
state." 

He was ever anxious to make the CoUege useful to the 
people, and inaugurated, as its means would permit, courses 
of study for those who wished to do advanced work, and 
also courses of instruction, during the three winter months, 
in practical farming for those who could not take the full 
course; and for these courses no examination was required. 
The growing interest of women in agriculture and flori- 
culture led to courses for their benefit. 

The work of the College was continually increasing. Ex- 
perimental work of great importance had been carried on 
ever since its establishment, and in 1882 the Massachu- 
setts Agricultural Experiment Station was organized, with 
Dr. C. A. Goessmann as director. The Hatch Experiment 
Station, under the direction of President Goodell, was 
organized in accordance with an act of Congress in 1888, 
as the Experiment Department of the Massachusetts 
Agricultural College. The two stations maintained a sepa- 
rate existence until 1895, when they were united under the 
name of the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachu- 
setts Agricultural College, under the directorship of Pre- 
sident H. H. Goodell. 

The first duty of the new president was to let the people 
know what the College was for, and how it would aflfect 
them. This involved an immense amount of work, the pre- 



98 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

paration of addresses, traveling to every corner of the 
Commonwealth, and appearing before committees of the 
legislature. In his addresses on agricultural education he 
had an apt text which he used to illustrate: "How can he 
get wisdom that holdeth the plow and glorieth in the goad, 
that driveth oxen and is occupied in their labors, and whose 
talk is of bullocks?" ^ — and in answering the question he 
adjusted his address to the character of his audience. Many 
of these popular addresses in the early days of his presi- 
dency are out of tune with the spirit of to-day, and would 
excite a smile, not on account of the manner of handling 
the subjects, but on account of the subjects themselves. 
They had to do with what would seem to us the petty and 
trivial, the creatures of a persistent hostility or ignorant 
criticism. It seems impossible to-day that such objections 
should be raised against such an institution; but they had 
to be met and the work had to be done over and over 
again for years. It was a pleasure to him to meet the peo- 
ple and answer their honest questions, but men soon found 
that it was not safe to trifle with him. Pages might be 
filled with smart questions intended to put him and his 
cause in a ludicrous position; but his ready wit and good- 
natured replies were sure to turn the tables on the ques- 
tioner and leave him in a very undesirable situation. 

A few of the graduates of the College had entered the 
ministry, and the chairman of one of the committees of the 
Massachusetts legislature before which he had to appear, 
said to him: "I notice you have some ministers among 
your graduates. Will you please tell me what the connec- 
tion is between agriculture and theology?" 

1 Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach: xxxviii, 25. 



EDUCATOR . 99 

When the laugh had subsided, in which he undoubtedly 
joined, President Goodell replied: "I have just received a 
letter from one of these ministers in which he says, ' I know 
of no more perfect illustration of original sin than the pus- 
ley I used to dig on the college farm,' " 

Of course the relationship between agriculture and theo- 
logy was settled in a roar of laughter at the expense of the 
chairman. 

President Goodell was patient in dealing with the limita- 
tions of men, but persistent in meeting their objections. 
It was by pressure and not by blows that he carried his 
point and made his mark upon his hearers. It was not until 
after years of discussion that he could feel that the College 
had passed its experimental stage. It was a long and weary 
way, but he was bravely supported by the friends of the 
best interests of the people and of civilization itself. Too 
little credit is given to men who stand for an institution 
devoted to the benefit of those who do not wish to be bene- 
fited in the only way in which their situation can be per- 
manently improved. 

His annual reports are a striking illustration of the ever- 
widening scope of the work he was doing. In the first report 
he describes briefly the actual state of things, the improve- 
ments that have been made, and the pressing wants of the 
College. He pleads for a labor fund out of which indigent 
students could be paid for work done. "It would be," he 
says, "one of the noblest of charities. It would not sacri- 
fice the students' feeling of self-respect, for they would be 
giving an honest equivalent for money received." He calls 
attention to the changes in the course of studies, "to carry 
out more fully the intention of the original bill, to give a 



100 HENRY HELL GOODELL 

thorough practical knowledge of agriculture and horticul- 
ture and at the same time liberally educate the man." More 
time is to be devoted "to the study of one's mother tongue " ; 
and in this connection he adds: "Too much value cannot 
be placed upon the Library. It is now only the nucleus of 
what it ought to be, and a thousand dollars should be ex- 
pended at once in furnishing the latest scientific works in 
the several departments." 

In his next report we have a new feature. A list is given 
of some thirty lectures by experts, not connected with the 
College, on various subjects, ranging from the nebular hy- 
pothesis and evolution to the various breeds of cattle and 
the culture of bees. The labor fund is again presented, with 
such force and cogency of reasoning that it did not escape 
the attention of the legislators. The culture of "one's 
mother tongue" is again emphasized: "A knowledge of 
English composition, the power of adequately expressing 
thought in words, lies at the base of all education." An- 
other appeal is made for the library: "'Gyf to ye foke ye 
beste and muche of it and they will stomak no thing else,* 
is as true now as when penned well nigh two hundred and 
fifty years ago." 

These annual reports are a striking illustration of the 
practical nature of the man and his growing breadth of 
view. With one or two exceptions they were accepted and 
adopted, without change, as the report of the Board of 
Trustees. 

This may be a fit place to introduce some account of 
President Goodell's ideas of the functions of an agricult- 
ural college. It will be remembered that the mechanic arts, 
as provided for in the Morrill Act, were taught in the Massa- 



EDUCATOR 101 

chusetts Institute of Technology, which shared in the funds 
allowed the Commonwealth by the national government. 
By this arrangement the College was left to teach what 
pertains to agriculture. At the tenth annual convention of 
the Association of American Agricultural and Experiment 
Stations, held in the City of Washington, November 12, 
1896, four college presidents from different parts of the 
country were appointed to discuss the question, "What 
should be taught in our Colleges of Agriculture? " In these 
papers the individuality of the writers stands out clearly, 
and in none more prominently than in the paper presented 
by the representative from Massachusetts. President 
Goodell presented the subject as it had been developed at 
Amherst, and the reader is referred to his address printed 
in this volume. It is to be noticed that, in his schedule of 
studies, he made English an important factor in fitting a 
man to be a farmer. Some of the speakers dismissed the 
subject at the end of the first year, while he carried it 
through the whole course. His reason for this is thus co- 
gently stated: "The student's mind being brought in con- 
tact with the great minds that have adorned the pages of 
American and English history, his mind, his powers are 
quickened and developed thereby, his mental horizon is 
enlarged, and thus a most important educational advantage 
is secured." 

Dr. E. W. Allen, Assistant Director in the Office of Ex- 
periment Stations at Washington, and a graduate of the 
Massachusetts Agricultural College, in a private letter, 
which he has kindly allowed to be published, has summed 
up the whole subject of President Goodell's ideas of agricul- 
tural education, in a most admirable way, as will be seen 



102 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

by comparing the letter with the address above referred to. 
Dr. Allen writes : — 

"Among President Goodell's services to the Massachu- 
setts Agricultural College it seems to me none have been 
more far-reaching than the high educational ideals which 
he contended for. He never forgot that the institution was 
a college, and not a farm school; that its prime object was 
the education of men for real life — not merely the giving 
of superficial training, which would make its graduates 
simply skilled technicians. He contended that the college 
must teach facts and principles as well as things, and that 
the true agricultural education rescues man from the rule-of- 
thumb only as it gives him an intellectual grasp of his sub- 
ject and the ability to use knowledge with discrimination. 

"To him more than to any other single man, it seems to 
me, is due the high conception of the educational aims of 
the College which have prevailed almost from the first, and 
which have differentiated it quite sharply from most of the 
agricultural colleges. To understand the coin-age which 
this required it is necessary to realize the wave of enthusi- 
asm which has swept over the country for the more super- 
ficial kinds of instruction at these colleges. This superfi- 
cial instruction, which dealt with things mainly rather than 
with principles, and gave a minimum of attention to the 
general educational features, was spectacular and attract- 
ive to the uneducated man, and from its popularity rather 
than its pedagogic value it came to be adopted very widely. 
The Massachusetts College stood almost alone in its per- 
sistency in holding to some of the old ideas of education, 
and the wisdom of its course is every year becoming more 
evident. 



EDUCATOR 103 

"Aside from this very potent influence in holding the 
college to a high education standard, it is difiicult to enume- 
rate his special services to the institution, they were so many 
and so varied. I think he more than any other man con- 
tributed to an esprit de corps among the students and the 
alumni. For many years he gave much time to keeping in 
contact with the graduates, purely as a voluntary under- 
taking, and he made many of them feel what they really 
owed to the college. The vast amount of work which he put 
upon the college library resulted in the building up of the 
best selected and arranged agricultural library in this coun- 
try, which I think is only surpassed at the present time by 
the Library of the National Department of Agriculture 
It is his most conspicuous monument. 

" In his plans for organization and development President 
Goodell built symmetrically, aiming to develop the vari- 
ous departments uniformly, rather than one or two de- 
partments at the expense of all others. He was exceedingly 
just and broad in his sympathies with all departments of 
the institution, believing that each had its place and that 
together they made a strong, symmetrical whole . His policy 
seemed to be to give quite large liberty to the heads of 
departments in order that they might have the inspiration 
of the field, and to hold them accountable for the results. 
He stamped upon all the necessity for a clear and definite 
plan, and for thoroughness in all that was undertaken." 

After the establishment in 1886 of the Hatch Experiment 
Stations in connection with the land-grant colleges, it 
became at once apparent to the leaders of agricultural 
education, that cooperative action was necessary to secure 
the best results, not only in work but in legislation. It was 



104 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

felt that if they could go to Congress as a body, they would 
have more influence than they would if colleges presented 
their cases singly. To this end an association of the execu- 
tive oflBcers of these institutions was formed, called the 
American Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experi- 
ment Stations. With this very important movement Presi- 
dent Goodell was intimately connected from the beginning. 
The confidence reposed in his judgment and abilities is best 
illustrated by the positions of responsibility assigned to him 
by his associates. Here it will be sufficient to cite the testi- 
mony of two of his fellow workers. The editor of the Ex- 
periment Station Record, in the June number for 1905, 
gives the following account of his relations with the associ- 
ation : — 

"With the organization of the agricultural colleges and 
experiment stations of the country into an association, 
President Goodell became a conspicuous figure in the na- 
tional association, and was prominently identified with all 
the movements supported by it during the first fifteen years 
of its existence. He was a member of its executive commit- 
tee from 1888 to 1902, and for the last eight years of that 
period was chairman. As a member of that committee he 
had a prominent part in securing the legislation leading to 
the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in 
every state and territory, and the further endowment of the 
land-grant colleges. 

"As chairman of the executive committee he devoted 
much time to the business of the association and to looking 
after the interests of the institutions represented in it. He 
was conservative in his action, and his management helped 
to economize the time of the association and to make its 



EDUCATOR 105 

meetings effective. He urged a strict interpretation of the 
Morrill and Hatch acts, and a careful use of the privileges 
conferred by them. He pointed out the dangers to the col- 
lege and station funds of legislation which reduced the in- 
come from the sale of public lands : and his committee was 
instrumental in securing the passage in 1900 of a clause pro- 
viding that, if at any time the proceeds from the sale of pub- 
lic lands should be insufficient to meet the annual appropri- 
ations for the colleges and experiment stations, the same 
should be paid from any funds in the Treasury, thus plac- 
ing these funds on a sure foundation. 

"President Goodell was President of the Association of 
American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations 
in 1891, being the third to hold that office. His address be- 
fore the convention of that year dealt with some of the 
achievements of the agricultural experimentation and the 
guiding principles underlying it. It led up to an apprecia- 
tion of the work of the Rothamsted Experiment Station, 
concluding with the presentation of Dr. R. Warington, 
who came as the first representative of the English station 
to deliver a course of lectures under the provisions of the 
Lawes trust. Two years later, when Sir Henry Gilbert 
came to this country on a similar mission, President 
Goodell arranged to have these classic lectures delivered 
under the auspices of the Massachusetts Agricidtural Col- 
lege, the pressure of other business making it impractica- 
ble for more than an introduction to them to be delivered 
at the meeting of the association." 

In an address delivered at the request of the association, 
President W. E. Stone of Purdue University, Indiana, gives 
the following account of his work: — 



106 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

"In the work of this association, and in the estabHsh- 
ment of the foundations of the land-grant colleges and ex- 
periment stations, President Goodell had an important and 
almost unique part. A full comprehension of this can only 
be had by those who shared with him these labors. With the 
passage of the Hatch Act it became apparent that an organ- 
ization of the executive oflScers of these institutions was a 
necessity. The attention of Congress could be secured only 
by the presentation of matters of national scope in concrete 
and unified form. The plan of education and research 
mapped out for the land-grant colleges was too broad, 
varied and comprehensive, and too vital, to permit of its 
development without organized direction. It was necessary 
on more than one occasion to urge upon departments of the 
government a consideration of conditions which led to fair 
and beneficial rulings with regard to these institutions. The 
questions of jurisdiction and of the relations between the 
separate institutions and governmental departments were, 
and have ever been, of greatest importance. The heads of 
these colleges were pushing out into new and unexplored 
regions, and felt the need of mutual aid and advice. All of 
these considerations emphasized to Goodell and his col- 
leagues the necessity of an association for mutual aid and 
protection, as well as for the general advancement of the 
interests to which these institutions were devoted. In the 
organization of this association he was a moving spirit, and 
in its subsequent work always an active participant. He was 
a member of the executive committee from 1888 to 1902, and 
during the last eight years of this time was chairman of the 
same. In this capacity he labored untiringly, not only in 
the broader duties of the position, but in multitudinous de- 



EDUCATOR 107 

tails which contributed to the success of the organization. 
One can recall distinctly his methods of preparing and pre- 
senting the business of the association in a complete and 
finished manner, which expedited the routine of its work, 
even at the cost of apparent officiousness on his part. His 
rare tact and insight into human nature; his broad outlook 
upon the field of agricultural education; his wide know- 
ledge of public men, and thorough familiarity with the his- 
tory of the land-grant college movement, fitted him for the 
place of leader in the work of the executive committee and 
enabled him to render inestimable service. 

" The attention of Congress and of governmental depart- 
ments has been favorably moulded by the wisdom and firm- 
ness of this committee. The threatening danger to the Fed- 
eral appropriation for the colleges and experiment stations, 
through the gradual diversion of the proceeds of the sale of 
public lands, was foreseen and averted through his efforts 
and leadership in securing protective legislation in 1900. 
His conservative and wise but energetic action averted 
many dangers and laid foundations which will sustain our 
institutions for a long time to come. That we have passed 
through this period of development so safely is due to a 
strong organization and able leaders, among whom Henry 
Hill Goodell stands conspicuous. To few, if any, of these 
do the agricultural colleges and experiment stations owe 
a greater debt than to him." 

President Stone, in the address just quoted, remarks that 
President Goodell took so important a part in the delibera- 
tions of the association as almost to expose him to the sus- 
picion of being officious. At one of the annual meetings in 
Washington, besides delivering an address, he is reported 



108 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

to have Imumi on his feet some twenty -five times, not how- 
over to muko Ji sjKHH'h, but to muko ji brief explanalion of 
the action of the executive commitlee, to call aUcnlion to 
pending business, or to suggest new business prepared by 
the committee. It is said that a new member, then present, 
asked, with j)erhaps jiardonable irreverence, "Who is that 
little cuss who seems to run Ihe whole business?" 

From the nature of the case it is diflicult It) get a clear 
idea of Ihe work of the executive cominillce, but this at 
least is certain, it nuist have been very onerous.* A single 
item will throw a little light on the subject. President Good- 
ell in one of his reports incidentally notes the fact that the 
committeo had written .'JS.'J letters during the year in the in- 
terest of the association. They })repared the business to be 
submitted, made reports of what they had done, and re- 
conunended measures that would be of advantage to the 
colleges and experiment stations, which often retiuired the 
aceunudationof agood many data and much hard thiidving. 
They also kept a sharp watch on the national legislation. 
This brought them into close connection with almost every 
dcparlmcnt of the national government, and called upon 
them to appear bc^forc many committees and joint commit- 
tees of the House and the Senate. 

A single illustration will give some idea of their work, at 
least so far as legislation is concerned. For some years after 
the passage of the first Morrill Act in 1802, the i)ublie lands 
were a subject of great anxiety to the executive couunittee, 

' As nil illiislriilioii of the nature of tlio hiisiuoss tliat oamo before the 
executive eouiniillee iiud of the eliairuiaii'.s way of presentiuj; it, the re- 
port of the eouuuitlce lo llie twclftli couvenliou, 1898, is given iu this 
volume. 



EDUCATOR 100 

for Congress was prone to devote the income accruing from 
their sale to other ])urj)Oses tlian that to which they were 
devoted by that act, — the cause of agricultural and me- 
chanical education, — and it was foreseen that the revenue 
from that source would soon be exhausted and that the col- 
leges and exjjeriment stations would be left without the 
income upon which their usefulness and life depended. 

To save the colleges and experiment stations from utter 
ruin. Senator Morrill presented in 181)0 a bill known as the 
Second Morrill Act, which provided that the annuity to 
these institutions should be paid from the Treasury of the 
United States. To secure the passage of such a bill a great 
variety of opinions and interests had to be reconciled. 
There is many a pitfall in the way of a bill through Con- 
gress. After the friends of this bill thought their work was 
done and were resting U])on their oars. Senator Morrill 
informed President (Joodell of the situation as follows: — 

Washinoton, D. C, June 10, 1890. 

My DEAit Siu, — As you may perhaps have seen, I .at- 
tempted to get up the College Bill on Saturday last but 
had to consent to its going over until Thursday next. I 
find that there are various amendments to be proposed. 
Alabanui wants one to take care of a colored institution 
estal)lished by the state, and I regret to say your Senator 
Hoar desires to i)ut in some provisions so that he can get 
in an institution at Worcester, I sui)i)o.se of some techni- 
cal or mechanical character, and this I very nuich regret. 
I think your institution ought to have the whole of the 
apj)ro])riation as well as all others, for I do not want to 
raise the question in all the states as to where the addi- 



110 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

tional endowment should go. It would be well for you to 
do everything you can. 

Yours very truly, 

Justin S. Morrill. 

While this bill was pending, another subject came up, of 
great importance to the land-grant colleges, — the proposi- 
tion to establish schools of mines and mining. It was a very 
popular movement. The executive committee of the asso- 
ciation at once caused a bill to be drawn to connect these 
schools with the colleges in such a way "as to secure the 
most desirable end of maximum advantage at a minimum 
of expense." The bill was in charge of Senator Tillman of 
South Carolina, who was very much interested in it. Every- 
thing seemed to be going well for a time, but objection soon 
came to the front and the Senator wrote to President Good- 
ell on April 26, 1900, as follows: — 

Dear Sir, — I have your letter of April 25th. I have 
been looking out for a favorable opportunity to call up the 
bill, but as yet have not seen one. Hale of Maine is opposed 
and I think will "object," and Senator Allison of Iowa also 
told me this morning that it was a serious matter and 
he would have to consider it before he would be willing to 
allow it to go to a vote. Urge your friends to press the mat- 
ter upon Senators from their states. I am practically cer- 
tain there will be a majority for it if we can get a vote on 
the question, but you know when objection is made it pre- 
vents present consideration. I shall let no grass grow under 
my feet as soon as I return from the West, whither I start 
to-night to be gone until Monday. 

Yours truly, B. R. Tillman. 



EDUCATOR 111 

In his report next year to the association, President 
Goodell thus describes the result: "An old Norse proverb 
runs 'The must-be goes ever as it should-be.' The bill es- 
tablishing schools of mines and mining in connection with 
the colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic 
arts has evidently not been a must-be, for it has gone ever 
as it should not"; and he adds: "The situation was such 
that it required the presence of the entire committee in 
Washington four times, and individual members ten and 
twelve times." 

But at this session of Congress a great victory was won 
for the land-grant colleges by the passage of the Second 
Morrill Act, and Senator Morrill from his home in Ver- 
mont wrote President Goodell a letter which tells its own 

story. 

Strajtoed, Vermont, Aug. 31, 1890. 

My dear Sir, — Please accept my cordial acknowledge- 
ments for the valuable aid you rendered in promoting the 
passage of the Agricultural College Bill. A veto would 
seem impossible, but I have not yet noticed that the Presi- 
dent has signed the bill. 

Very sincerely yours, 

Justin S. Morrill. 
Pres. Goodell 

Mass. Agric. College, 
Amherst, Mass. 

As president of the Agricultural College President Goodell 
was ex-officio a member of the State Board of Agriculture, 
and as such always attended the meetings of the board, 
served on committees and was, during his entire connection 



112 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

with the board, a member of the standing committee on 
Institutes and PubHc Meetings. This involved the selection 
of subjects for discussion, and his wide and intimate ac- 
quaintance with men eminent in agricultural matters helped 
materially in selecting and procuring speakers. During the 
ten years that the campaign against the gypsy moth was 
carried on by the State Board of Agriculture, he made many 
arguments in favor of appropriations for the extermination 
of the pest. He eloquently warned the legislators of the re- 
sults of a cessation of the work, and the present condition 
of the war and its heavy cost are sufficient proof of the 
wisdom of his unheeded warning. 

The real position of President Goodell in the estimation 
of his fellow citizens is perhaps as well stated as it could be 
in the following letter of introduction to President Cleve- 
land from His Excellency, Governor Russell : — 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
Executive Department, Boston, Jan. 9, 1893. 

Hon. Grover Cleveland, New York. 

My dear Mr. Cleveland, — Mr. H. H. Goodell, 
President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, has 
been appointed by the association of agricultural colleges 
of the country as a committee of one to wait upon you and 
lay before you its views in reference to making the office of 
Assistant Secretary of the Department of Agriculture a per- 
manent office, and to suggest the name of Major Alvord as 
their candidate for the position. 

I am very glad to say that Mr. Goodell is a man of the 
highest character and position here in Massachusetts, 
thoroughly fearless and independent in his views of polit- 



EDUCATOR 113 

ical and public questions, and one who has been most suc- 
cessful as the head of a great institution. His views upon 
a question of this nature are entitled, and I am sure will 
receive, careful consideration. 

As I have known Major Alvord for some years as a most 
able and uncompromising Democrat, I cannot refrain from 
speaking a word of recommendation in his behalf. 

I have not, nor had I intended to, bother you with re- 
commendations of candidates for office. While scores of 
men apply to me for recommendations I have uniformly 
refrained from giving them, because it seemed to me that 
you were already sufficiently beset with matters of this 
character. 

With kind regards, I am, 

Sincerely yours, 

William E. Russell. 

As the natural result of overwork and the burden of the 
great experiment he was carrying, which pressed very 
heavily for years, admonitions came, of a very serious na- 
ture. His health w^hile in college seemed to have been good, 
and according to his account improved during his service 
in the army. But after going to Amherst weaknesses de- 
veloped of so serious a character as to demand periods of 
entire rest. As early as 1880 he was in the Adirondacks from 
June 4 until deep into September; the next year he went 
to Georgia for two months; the following year he made a 
flying trip to Europe with his brother. Dr. William Goodell, 
visiting France and the Netherlands; in 1887 he resigned 
the presidency of the college on account of his health; in 
1891 he went to England; early in 1894 he was obliged to 



114 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

submit to an operation for appendicitis, and in July went 
abroad with family friends, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Gil- 
man Stanton of Winchester, Mass., but was home again 
the last of August; in 1903 he went to Nassau and Florida, 
and in 1905 to Florida. The last three years of his life he 
was obliged to wear a corset, or as he called it "a harness, " 
for osteo-arthritis. His life was one long fight with disease, 
but the moment there was any improvement in his condi- 
tion, he was back at his post, for he felt that a necessity 
was upon him and he must work. His indomitable energy 
could not be restrained, and he never knew how to hus- 
band his strength. The talent of repose was denied him. 
He could not do nothing; he could not lie by. 

The trustees of the College did everything in their power 
to relieve him of work. They voted him vacations without 
loss of salary ; and when he was elected chairman of the ex- 
ecutive committee of the Association of Agricultural Col- 
leges and Experiment Stations, they allowed him the neces- 
sary time to attend to those duties, which often required 
long absences from the college; as in the case of the Second 
Morrill Act in 1890, when he was in Washington most of 
the time for more than two months. These are only illus- 
trations, among many, of their thoughtfulness. 

Some account may now be given of four of his enforced 
pauses, the only ones of which any record is left. He sailed 
for England August 31,1891, in company with his wife, 
who remained with him at Southampton until October 11, 
when she returned to America, as he was sufficiently re- 
covered to be left alone. On October 13 he wrote : — 

"I skipped down to the island of Jersey for four or five 
days, and took notes which I hope to work up into a lecture 



EDUCATOR 115 

sometime. It was a most enjoyable trip and a unique one 
to me. I went round among the farmers and saw the cattle 
at home. I was lucky in going with a man who has im- 
ported Jerseys for over fifty years, and he took me round 
with him on his buying trips. It was about as instructive 
and pleasant a trip as I ever took. Sunday I attended 
service in a church about eight hundred years old. The 
English garrison marched in in full regimentals and the 
music was by the full band. You can't think how it echoed 
and rolled around in the stone arches. It happened to be 
Harvest Home festival and the church was filled with flow- 
ers, fruits and vegetables." 

A lecture entitled "The Agriculture of the Channel 
Islands " was prepared on his return to America, and is given 
in this volume. 

From London, November 11, he wrote: "I am, I hope, 
entirely recovered. Have pulled up steadily ever since I 
left America and hope before long to be turning my face 
towards the States." But his hope of recovery was not to 
be realized. 

During his visit to England in 1894, he was very much 
interested at Oxford in the Bodleian Library, at Stratford 
in everything pertaining to Shakespeare, and in the Isle of 
Wight, in Carisbrooke Castle, now mostly in ruins, with 
its historical associations, its foundation going back to 
Saxon times, its keep of Norman times, its walls and tower 
of the thirteenth century, and its residential buildings 
added during the reign of Elizabeth. Here King Charles I 
spent a year, a prisoner of the Parliament, scheming to 
pair off the Parliament against the army, and made his last 
move on the checkerboard of Pate, in an attempt to bring 



116 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

a Scottish army into England, which led to his trial, and, 
as Oliver Cromwell said, to the "cruel necessity" of his 
execution. 

In the year 1895 came a period of terrible and torturing 
anxieties, which made his life, for months, an awful night- 
mare, bristling with horrors. The son of a missionary, he 
knew something of the exposures of a missionary, even in 
the near East. He had a sister in Armenia with her family, 
who was particularly exposed, as her husband was a mis- 
sionary. He knew the character of the Armenians and of 
the wild tribes of the mountains, and the character of 
the Sultan, Abd-ul Hamid II, "the assassin," as Gladstone 
called him. When the Sultan let loose the savage Kurds and 
supported them with Turkish soldiers, inspired by Moslem 
fanaticism, upon a clever and industrious, but unpopular 
and unwarlike people, Goodell knew full well what would 
be the result, and his imagination pictured such scenes 
as Milton described as taking place in the valleys of Pied- 
mont, two hundred and forty years before. "Atrocity," 
says the great poet, "horrible and before unheard of! 
Such savagery — Good God, were all the Neros of all times 
and all ages to come to life again, what a shame they would 
feel at having contrived nothing equally inhuman!" 

He not only prepared an address, which was published, 
but he appealed to the Governor of the Commonwealth to 
use his influence with the authorities at Washington, and 
addressed letters to influential members of Congress. But 
nothing came of it. The great powers, for one reason or 
another, declined to interfere. But the next year came 
the Turkish St. Bartholomew Day, or days, in the streets of 
Constantinople, and Lord Salisbury, then at the head of 



EDUCATOR 117 

the British Government, "solemnly and pubHcly warned 
the Sultan of the consequences of his misgovernment and 
suggested the eventual necessity of the employment of 
force." Happily Goodell's sister and her family escaped the 
brutalities they were obliged to witness. 

Amid all his trials he had many things to cheer him. At 
Commencement, 1897, he was presented with a very large 
and beautiful loving cup, with the following inscription: 
"By the Alumni and Former Students of the Massachusetts 
Agricultural College, June 22, 1897. In recognition of 
Thirty Years of Faithful Service to our Alma Mater, and 
in loving remembrance as a friend and teacher." It was a 
tribute he greatly appreciated, and he could not speak of 
it without emotion. 

In the fall of 1902 it became alarmingly apparent to his 
friends that his condition was critical and demanded im- 
mediate attention, although it did not seem so to him. He 
thought that if he could get away for a week or two, it would 
do him a world of good, but he did not see how even that 
was possible. His friends, however, so arranged matters 
that there could be no reasonable excuse on his part, and 
one of them, Colonel Mason W. Tyler of Plainfield, N. J., 
offered to relieve him of any financial difficulty. This move- 
ment was generously seconded by the trustees, who unani- 
mously voted him leave of absence without loss of salary. 
When he was informed of what was going on, he expressed 
at least a part of his feelings in the following letters. 

Amherst, Mass., December 18, 1902. 

My dear Blessed Mason, — Truly am I blessed above 
all others in my friends. Stebs has just sent me your generous 



118 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

offer, but I cannot accept it, much as I would like to. My 
annual report to the legislature is due in about two weeks, 
I have only just commenced it. Then I shall have three bills 
in the legislature whose wild career must be watched over. 
After that, if I could get away for a couple of weeks, it 
would greatly build me up. I have had a little whack of 
bronchitis and to-day was out for the first time. So you 
see I am improving and my back, under the gentle treat- 
ment of a corset, is slowly limbering up. 

Heaven bless you for your kindly thoughts of me. 

Affectionately, 

Your Dad. 

A few days later, when the whole scheme was revealed 
to him, he wrote: — 

Amherst, Mass., December 23, 1902. 

My deak Mason, — They say corporations have no 
souls. I am beginning to doubt it. The committee of 
trustees with whom for six months I have been a co-worker 
met last Saturday unbeknownst to me (but I suspect 
Stebs); agreed to take upon themselves the duty of care 
of our bills in the legislature this winter, and voted to 
recommend to the full board of trustees to give me leave 
of absence immediately after presentation of my report. 
Verily my cup runneth over, and when I think of the beau- 
tiful friendship that has bound you and Dick and Stebs 
and myself together for so many years, my eyes grow quite 
shiny and I thank the Lord that I have been permitted to 
be one of you. And so, my dear Mase, sometime after New 
Years I will come down to Plainfield and report for orders. 



EDUCATOR 119 

May all the joys of Christmas and the brightness of the 
New Year descend upon you in a four-fold measure, and 
what an aureole will be yours ! 

With love to Mrs. Mase, 

Ever thy Dad. 

After completing his annual report to the legislature, he 
started January 16, 1903, for Nassau. He saw many things 
that interested him and as usual the vegetation attracted 
his attention. January 27 he writes: — 

"This is a wonderful little island. The temperature has 
not fallen below 70 and it has twice gone up to 79. It has 
showered every day but one, and what with the warm 
debihtating atmosphere, filled with moisture, one does not 
care to move much. But sitting on the piazza, looking off 
upon the water, there is a most delicious breeze and it is 
hard to realize that at home you are all shivering over 10 to 
20 temperature. The two most delightful things here are 
the fruits, — grape-fruit, three kinds, shaddocks, paw- 
paws, . . . bananas, and cocoa trees, — and the bathing. 
The latter is simply delicious. I go in every day and come 
out feeling like the morning star. It (the water) is so pure 
and fresh and green that you can look down a good many 
feet. They have one or two boats constructed with a glass 
bottom, and as you are towed along by a small tug you can 
watch the coral, the sponge and the star-fish on the bot- 
tom. I have not yet tried it but they say it is most beauti- 
ful in effect. 

"The star excursion is a kind of combination one. You 
are rowed a mile across to Hog's Island, furnished with 
bathing suit, and take a swim, eat all the fruit you care to, 



120 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

and then rowed back, all for twenty-five cents. Here is 
richness for you ! There are no troops here and the police 
are colored. They look funny enough in their helmets and 
red stripes. They are either very effective or else the people 
are very good. I think it must be the latter, for I am told 
they all eat oatmeal in the morning, and you know what 
a penitential diet does for me. I don't know just what to 
say about myself. Caught some cold yesterday and don't 
feel like the morning star to-day, — short breath and puffi- 
ness, — but I hope for the best." 

Writing again from Nassau on February 7, he gives this 
account of himself : — 

"I am just out of the water from a swim and find your 
cheery letter, but my hand is so shaky that I have taken 
to a pencil. My friends have been more than kind to 
me, for the post-office to-day brought me seven letters; 
three of these, it is needless to say, came from my wife. 
And here let me stop to say: Heaven bless our wives! 
What in the world could we possibly do without them? 
The worst, or the best, of it is that they treat us so well. 
We get the swelled head and think we are some pumpkins, 
when we are not worthy to kiss the ground on which they 
stand. I am afraid you may think this is somewhat Van- 
cien, but I have been thinking all this morning how she, 
i. e. my wife, has had to watch over and take care of me 
all the time, and how little I have been able to do for her. 

"An interesting item to you may be that there are no 
taxes here except on glass. Hence you may drive through 
the coon quarter of the city, namely, in the quarter where 
11,000 live, and you will not see a single glass window, — 
nothing but wooden shutters. At night, after six o'clock, 



EDUCATOR 121 

it is very gloomy. Every house and store shut up tight, 
without a gleam of light. Contrary to all precedent, it has 
rained every day but three since my coming here, and I 
cannot truthfully say anything more about my health 
than that my bark is on the island." 

It would seem from this parody on Byron's line and pun 
on the word "bark" that his cough had not subsided. 

The weather was unfavorable, and finding that his stay 
on the island was not likely to prove beneficial, he crossed 
over to the mainland and settled for a few days at Jensen, 
Florida. There was at once a marked change in his con- 
dition and he writes March 7: — 

"Here I am in this beautiful little town on the Indian 
River drawing in life and health with every breath I draw. 
Have ceased coughing, — can breath like a major and even 
survey the intricacies of my collar-button, or the lacing 
of my shoe-strings without a quiver, A narrow island 
separates us from the ocean, and I fall asleep to the mur- 
muring of the wind and the steady beat of the surf. No one 
could help getting well in the soft, balmy air and beautiful 
sunshine. But the old problem of steering by the North 
Star confronts me worse than ever, for the sun rises in the 
South and the Big Dipper is upside down. How can I 
right myself when all signs fail? I think I shall stay here a 
week longer and then go to Jacksonville. 

"The Indian River — horrible misnomer, for an arrant 
arm of the sea that has lost its way and goes wandering 
along some hundred miles or more — is chuck-full of 
fish, and you cannot look upon it without seeing half a 
dozen or more splendid red mullets leap into the air and 
fall back with a splash into the water. All manner of tropi- 



122 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

cal fruits grow here. In our hotel garden are seven or eight 
different-hued hibiscus in bloom, orange trees, limes, gua- 
vas, all in fruit, plum trees, Australian oaks and pines, the 
camphor and cinnamon. The last two have very fragrant 
leaves. But alas ! that amid aU this beauty there should be 
any offset. But there surely is. A depraved microscopical 
red spider called 'Jigger' [chego] inhabits the vegetation 
and burrows in the person of the unwary spectator. I have 
met the jiggers and I am 'theirn.' They have rioted and 
are still rioting over my blameless body. From my waist, 
in fact my neck, down to my toes I am a spotted leopard, 
and in fact I find it as hard as he does to change his spots. 
I counted 153 burrows of these sinful miscreants and gave 
it up. But, oh, the blissful luxury of a scratch! Job and his 
potsherd are nowhere. I have been told to grease myself, 
and I have done so till I can wiggle through the smallest 
hole a politician ever found. I think I am heading them 
off, but the race is a hot one, for they got a mighty fine 
start. From Jacksonville I shall go to Asheville to acclimate 
myself, and so North and homewards which I am forbidden 
to reach till the 12th or 13th of April." 

Jensen, Florida, March 14, 1903. 

My dear , — I have been having a most delight- 
ful time here in Jensen. Allen ^ has returned, and we see 
each other almost every day. The old friendship and 
associations have been renewed, and as we skimmed the 
waters in our light boat we have talked and laughed over 
the old times. I have questioned him closely about the 
' paragogic nu, ' and as he professed an entire ignorance of 
1 W. Irving Allen, a classmate. 



EDUCATOR 123 

the subject, I owned up that it was a terra incognita to 
me. He owns a fine plantation of pineapples and about 
ten acres of bean-land across the river, on the island that 
separates us from the ocean. ... A pineapple plantation 
is a very beautiful sight, for you see bud, flowers and per- 
fect fruits at the same time in the plantation. The flowers 
come out singly on each scale of the half-grown apple. 
They are of a deep blue and contrast with the brilliant red 
of the inner leaves and the red brown of the fruit. How the 
mischief such a luscious fruit ever grows out of the pure 
white sand gets me, but Nature beats us all, and I am not 
going to set myself in opposition to her laws. The beans 
do not grow in this sand but in a fine soil on the island. 
They are shipping at this station about a thousand crates 
a day to New York. The leaves of the pineapples termi- 
nate in a very sharp, aggressive thorn, and as the edges 
are alive with thorns it is no joke to gather the fruit. The 
picker goes in with leather gaiters, gray duck trousers and 
long gauntlets, and throws the apples to the catcher, who 
follows him up in small paths that have been cut or left 
across the field twenty or thirty feet apart. Then they are 
taken to the packing-house on wooden tram-ways that 
bisect the field, and there they are sorted, packed and 
crated. There are about four miles of this pineapple plan- 
tation skirting the river-front. But how Nature, — Well, 
there; I'll sure just leave Nature to work out her own sal- 
vation alone in her own sweet way, without interference 
on my part. The planters all up and down the coast fine 
recognize me as Captain Allen's friend, and I have received 
many courtesies from them. 

I shall stay here till Wednesday the 17th, then go to Jack- 



124 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

sonville, stay a couple of days to see Sam Vance, thence to 
Asheville for a fortnight's stay to harden myself, and so 
work my way slowly North, for the Drs. won't hear to my 
getting back before the 9th or 10th of April. You will be 
delighted to know that I have not coughed nor had an at- 
tack of short breathing since coming here. 

I don't know when I shall be at Asheville, but I think 
old General Delivery will take care of my mail. 

My very best love to Mrs. and believe me, 

Yours always. 

This is our first rainy day since reaching here. 

From Asheville, N. C. March 22, he writes: "Your letter 
warning me of Asheville found me here. To tell you the 
truth I think a little cold will do me good. I have found 
it rather warm and enervating, and want to be able to do a 
little walking without perspiring to beat the band, and feel 
my collar and bosom melting away. I shall be sorry indeed 
not to stop over and see you, but I cannot tell. The Chinese 
Ambassador has brought five boys with him for education. 
He wants me to take one into my own family, provide 
places for the others, and be their guardian. I have agreed 
to stop in Washington and see him." 

The Ambassador was Sir Chentung Liang-Cheng, who 
now (1911) represents the Celestial Empire at the Court of 
Berlin. When a boy he was sent to America for education, 
and while here, pursuing his studies, became very intimate 
in Professor Goodell's family. A friendship grew up be- 
tween the professor and the boy, which was cherished by 
both with ever-increasing admiration and affection until 
the hand of one had withered. 



EDUCATOR 125 

On April 13, President Goodell arrived in Amherst, but 
not very much improved in health. A council of physicians 
was called and on the 27th he writes : — 

"I have delayed writing until I could give you the re- 
port of the Doctors. They have now pinched, punched and 
rapped at the seat of life. They have listened to the pro- 
longed expulsion of the air from my lungs and they have 
twisted, pulled out sideways and shut up like a jack-knife 
my legs, and they all with one accord declare there is no- 
thing the matter with me except 'that tired feeling.' They 
have given me a mixture of iron, quinine and strychnine to 
take three times a day. They have given me nitroglycerine 
and strychnine pills to take when I feel my breath is com- 
ing short and fast; and they are building on an ingenious 
plan a new corset to fit more tenderly around my ribs. 
Well, now, my dear M., all this is literally true. They find 
no organic disease, but declare me to be worn out and 
without strength to expel the air from my lungs; and hence 
the struggle, in which the impure air gets the better of me. 
It is very mortifying to know that I am not sick but only 
tired, and so I am slapping into my sacred person all sorts 
of poisonous and sedative drugs and trying to sleep eight 
hours a night. Please don't think I am exaggerating, for 
I do not believe I have one single word. But when Dr. S. 
in New London, Dr. H. in Amherst, and Dr. G. in Boston, 
all tell me the same thing, I can't help feeling a little bit 
easy round the edges as if I had been babying myself — 
and yet they all hint at all sorts of abominable things if I 
don't let up on work. It 's dreadful hard when there is so 
much to be done. 

"Dick was here yesterday for ten or fifteen minutes. 



126 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

What a pleasure it is to get back once more into the midst 
of our circle! I did n't know how dear you all were to me 
till I came away, and then M. and D. and S. tugged at my 
heart-strings. The Bible says, 'Every heart knoweth its 
own bitterness.' I think there ought to be something like 
this: 'Every heart knoweth its inability to express its in- 
most feelings.' For I can't measure out in words my thank- 
offering. I can only thank God for giving me so dear a 
friend as you, who have been loyal to me so many years." 

From this attack he gradually recovered strength to at- 
tend to the ordinary business of the College; but the brisk 
step and spontaneous activity, so characteristic of him, were 
gone. It was very apparent, even to a casual observer, 
that every movement was the result of a conscious effort of 
the will. But the blithe, mirthful spirit was still clearly in 
evidence, and he faced the duties of his position with the 
cheerfulness and self-possession of a man in full health. 
This probably led many to think that his condition was 
not so serious as it really was. But for two years the stu- 
dents lost something of his cheering and inspiring person- 
ality. Yet there seems to have been no failure in his 
mental grasp. His last report, that of 1905, which must 
have received its finishing touches after his final and fatal 
attack, shows no loss of intellectual power or enthusiasm. 
Indeed it is the most potent of them all, especially in his 
statement of the needs of the College. 

In the meantime he was really hovering so near the edge 
of life that an exposure of any kind was pretty sure to prove 
fatal. It seems impossible that he should not have been 
aware of his condition; but if he was, it did not seem to 
have disturbed him in the least, and probably did not. His 



EDUCATOR 127 

personal friends and the trustees, however, were not with- 
out grave apprehensions. About the middle of December, 
1904, while waiting for a car at Holyoke, he took a chill 
which utterly prostrated him. This attack was much more 
alarming than any he had as yet experienced. Again his 
friend Colonel Tyler made it financially easy for him to go 
wherever it was thought best, and have his wife as his 
companion. The trustees were not to be outdone, and at 
a meeting held January 2, 1905, voted to give him six 
months' leave of absence with full pay. The motion was 
made by Mr. William H. Bowker, one of the graduates of 
the first class sent out from the College, who spoke with a 
good deal of feeling, and there was a very warm expression 
of sympathy and affection for the president in this new 
trial. 

Here is his own account of his condition, written Decem- 
ber 27, 1904: — 

"This last attack seems to have knocked things upside 
down and left me as far as health is concerned in a pretty 
shaky condition. To state very briefly, there is a slight ef- 
fusion of serum in the lung cavity, which is gradually being 
absorbed. Then there is a constant emphysema of the lung 
which keeps me short-breathed. My limbs are slightly 
swollen, but the most serious trouble is some irritation of 
the urinary organs. Anyway, as near as I can find out the 
doctors propose to keep me in the house until everything 
is cleaned up and then send me South till warm weather. 
For eleven days I have not had a bit of anything solid, — 
nothing except milk and soda water, — and I think I am 
slowly improving, but it is not absolutely strengthening." 

The improvement he looked for was very slow and on 



128 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

January 15, 1905, he expresses his feelings and states his 
condition : — 

" No human being has ever had so many friends as I have. 
It is almost worth falling on evil days to see how they rally 
round me. God bless and keep you all. Pardon my delay 
in not answering your last, but I have had three very bad 
days without any breath to speak of. The serum in my 
chest has stopped being absorbed and I don't know when 
the Doctor will let me start." 

Ten days later, January 25, he writes: "In regard to the 
time of my going South, I am sorry to say I can tell you 
nothing about it. I got into a pretty miserable situation 
with certain features that were rather alarming. They sent 
for a speciahst from Boston. He was here Tuesday night, 
looked me over, and pronounced it as his opinion that I 
shall pull up from this provided I give myself complete 
rest, — and so he commenced giving me rest by sending 
me to bed and ordering me to remain there — or on the 
lounge — until such time as it seems feasible to let me 
loose on Florida." 

It would give a very erroneous impression as to the state 
of his mind if the letters here cited were thought to be wholly 
given to describing his various symptoms. His references 
to his condition are a very small part of them. The great 
burden of the letters from which extracts are made is given 
to making fun of the friend he happens to be writing to, or 
to some personal matters which interest him, and especially 
to expressing his gratitude to his friends. It is all told in 
this sentence, although expressed in many diflFerent ways: 
"It is very delightful to see how my friends rally round 
me and I assure you I appreciate it to the uttermost." 



EDUCATOR 129 

He had a friend to whom the spelling of ordinary Eng- 
lish words was an inscrutable mystery, who happened to 
dictate a letter to a typewriter for him, and he wrote in 
reply February 20: "Thanks for your good long letter of 
February 13. The neatness of your letter and the accuracy 
of your spelling leads me to think that the use of the type- 
writer is a means of grace to you. I am still housed here in 
Amherst. 'Afflictions sore long time I bore,' but rough 
breathing seems to hang on worst of all. I have been hop- 
ing against hope, to leave here next week, about the end of 
March, but I am very much afraid that the doctor will put 
me off another week. I think we will settle down for our 
health at Fort Pierce. When we get comfortably settled, 
I will let you know just where we are, and then I shall 
expect frequent messages." 

The last letter written in Amherst, the day he left for Flo- 
rida, shows that he knew that his case was serious, but it 
has in it the ring of courage that never fails. He was not 
of those who accept Longfellow's sentimental metaphor: — 

And our hearts, though stout and brave. 
Still, like muffled drums, are beating 
Funeral marches to the grave. 

It was written to his amanuensis: "For all your hopes 
and prayers in my behalf, accept my thanks. I need them 
all. For verily I have been down into the depths and my 
head is barely above the waves now. 'Yes,' said the doctor, 
'there is not an organ in your body performing its functions 
properly, sir.' Hence you may know why I closed up my 
note so hurriedly last week. The spirit indeed was willing 
but the flesh was almighty weak. We expect this afternoon 
to proceed to New York and take boat for Jacksonville. 



130 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

I do not know whether serving two masters is another case 
of God and Mammon, but anyway I commend to your care 
Professor Brooks. Deal gently with him — and hold the 
fort." (Professor Brooks had been appointed president 
pro tempore.) 

But at last, to use his own expression, he was "let loose 
on Florida"; or, as he states it in another place: "I am to 
flee to the mountains of Hepsidam." He felt great confi- 
dence that the climate would have an invigorating influ- 
ence, and said that it was the only place that did him any 
good before. He left Amherst in company with his wife, 
on March 6, and sailed from New York the next day for 
Jacksonville on the way to Fort Pierce. They arrived at 
Jacksonville Saturday morning, March 11, spent the day 
in the city, and went on to Fort Pierce in the evening, 
arriving there about 8 o'clock. 

The journey was very tedious and irritating. He writes 
March 17: "We have fairly comfortable quarters at this 
hotel. I am afraid your good wife would have something 
to say about the beds, — the same as mine does, — but 
that is one of the things that has to be endured. As we sit 
in our room, in the second story, the oleanders in the garden 
are flush with the windows — there are palmetto, rubber 
and lemon trees, and the garden slopes down to the water, 
where are colonized something like a hundred pelicans, and 
it is our great amusement to watch them dive and catch 
the fish, which they lay neatly away in their pouches for 
future reference. I am sorry to say that my legs began 
swelling again as soon as I left home, so that I am confined 
quite severely to the house. The weather to-day is all that 
one could ask and I shall hope now to improve." 



EDUCATOR 131 

A few days after his arrival he wrote: "If I had had the 
strength of a flea and the perseverance of an ant, I should 
have written you before this, but the fact was that two of 
the old symptoms came back on me after reaching here, 
the swelling of my legs and increased difficulty in breathing. 
The weather is not altogether what one could wish. Yes- 
terday we had a day to make one dream, temperature 79, 
with a fine breeze blowing most of the day. I expect as soon 
as the weather becomes settled and warm that I shall brace 
up and take a fresh hold. I shall trust in my next letter to 
be able to say: 'Behold how long a letter I, Dad, have 
written unto my Calvin.'" 

If fine spirits and courage could have saved a man in his 
condition he would surely have pulled up. 

He had expected to stay at Fort Pierce a month longer, 
but as the season was over and the hotel was closed, there 
was nothing for him to do but to go to St. Augustine. This 
he did the more readily for, as he said, it was a larger place 
and there he was sure of finding a good physician. But the 
journey was very tedious and aggravated all his symptoms. 
Almost immediately on arriving, the doctor ordered him 
to the hospital. The evidences of failing strength were very 
apparent. On April 10, he asked his wife to write at his 
dictation, but when he came to the case in hand he did not 
feel equal to it. She writes the same day : "He is very cheer- 
ful as usual." 

The next day he put a postscript to her letter: "I hardly 
know what I can say to you. I came down here hoping and 
expecting to improve immediately, but instead of that I 
had to go to the hospital and it is too soon to speak of re- 
sults. My doctor used to know my brother Wilham, and 



132 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

took care of him in his last days of Hfe, when he was here 
in St. Augustine. He is a man wonderfully well posted and 
there seems to be no end to the reserve forces that he is able 
to fall back on. As soon as I learn anything from him, or 
can speak favorably myself of my condition, I will write 
you more fully. My breathing this morning is much easier, 
but the swelling has not gone down very much but is im- 
proved somewhat." 

His next letter is written with pencil and simply says 
that the doctor has recommended that he go North. He 
was disappointed as he wished to stay longer at St. Au- 
gustine. His wife writes April 19: "The doctor advises 
us to get nearer home. We go by the Savannah line of 
steamers direct and will arrive in Boston Monday the 
24th." She understood what the doctor's advice meant, 
for it had been evident to her for some time that the end 
might come at any moment, although he showed no sign 
to the last, by word or look, of anxiety on that point. 

When within a few hours' sail of Boston Bay, at 1.45 on 
Sunday morning, April 23, while in the full possession of 
his faculties, he was relieved of "the turmoil for a little 
breath," so gently that he probably mistook the Angel of 
Death for the Angel of Sleep. 

Like a shadow thrown 
Softly and lightly from a passing cloud, 
Death fell on him. 

The funeral services were conducted in the College 
Chapel at Amherst, on the afternoon of April 27, and were 
of the simplest kind. The casket was covered and surrounded 
with many beautiful tributes of esteem and aJBfection, and 
the audience was one whose very presence was the finest of 



EDUCATOR 133 

tributes. Such a concourse of intelligent, active and enter- 
prising men is seldom seen together, and among them was 
the conspicuous figure of the minister of the Chinese Em- 
pire. He had been informed of the death of President 
Goodell just in time to take the train that made it possible 
for him to reach Amherst in season for the funeral ; and can- 
celling all his social engagements for fourteen days, he came 
to pay the tribute of his presence to a friend of whom he 
said, "He has been as a father and a brother to me." 

While the remains were being escorted to their final rest- 
ing place in West Cemetery by the battalion of college cadets, 
the bells of his Alma Mater and of the College of which he 
had been President sent out, to slow and measured beat, 
sounds that to some in that company of friends did not seem 
to have the solemn, funeral toll, but rather the tone of the 
bells that Bunyan's PUgrim heard as he approached the 
gate of the Celestial City. A few words were offered of 
prayer, of thanksgiving that "the song of woe is after all 
an earthly song," of heartfelt thanks for what we had had, 
and for the hope immortal; and Mother Earth received to 
her safe keeping all that was visible to the mortal eye. 

When the cadets returned they gathered round the flag- 
pole in the college Campus, where the beautiful symbol of 
the Republic, which he had followed when it was being 
torn by shot and shell, hung at half-mast, and taps were 
sounded. It was both a beautiful and a significant service. 
The soldier, in the army and out, had fought the good 
fight, had finished his course, had kept the faith. The 
world was all before them, to be made better by their 
words, or works, or both, and the music that calls to duty 
after taps is inspiring. 



IV 
CONCLUSION 

It has been the general purpose in this sketch to let 
President Goodell, so far as ])Ossil)lc, ^ive his own account 
of things, events and ])ersons as he met them from time 
to time. There are, however, certain traits of character 
that lent an indescribable charm to his conduct and re- 
lations Avilh men, Avhich deserve s])ecial notice. After he 
resigned the i)residoiu'y in 1887 he consented to reelection 
on condition that, when he was relieved of certain work 
himself, it should not result in increasing the labors, or di- 
minishing the i)ay, of any of his associates in tlie Facidty. 
This is illustrative of his whole career. Thoughtfulness of 
others was ever in the foreground of his mind. It may be 
safely doubted whether he ever consciously sought an 
advantage for himself which would result in an injury, or be 
unjust, to any one else. Indeed, the various positions which 
he held were not of his own seeking, but were thrust u])on 
him, and whatever honor, or emolument, was connected 
with them was earned by bearing the great responsibilities 
they imposed and the hard work they entailed. 

An imoblrusive guardianship of the interests of others 
was characteristic of his generous nature and manifested 
itself in many ways. He took a deep interest in the children 
of missionaries who were sent to this coimtry to be edu- 
cated. He kept in touch with his college classmates and 



CONCLUSION 135 

took a lively interest in their varying fortunes, and the same 
spirit was extended to the students of his own college both 
before and after graduation. The bright boy struggling for 
an education could have no better friend than the i)resi- 
dent, and the drain on his resources was sometimes very 
great. There is always a liability of pecuniary loss in such 
cases, which he could ill afford to bear; but like all generous 
men, he never learned anything by his own experience or 
the experience of others. When the student had gone out 
into the world, he was still an object of personal interest. 
President Coodell often did, to help others, what very few 
men even of a generous nature would have done, especially 
if they had a reasonable excuse for taking no interest in 
the matter. 

Reference has already been made to the effort to estab- 
lish schools of mines and mining in connection with the 
land-grant colleges. Of President Goodell's ])art in this 
undertaking it has been said: "Nothing, perliai)s, better 
shows President Goodell's conscientious devotion to the 
duties of his office, regardless of the interest to him per- 
sonally and to his institution, than his persistent efforts, as 
chairman of the executive committee, to secure the passage 
of a bill to provide a school of mines in connection with the 
land-grant colleges. This was a matter in which most of the 
institutions represented by the Association were greatly 
interested, and President Goodell worked long and faith- 
fully in its interests, although knowing full well that the 
school if provided would become a part of the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology. It never seemed to occur to 
him to labor less diligently on that account, and he spent 
weeks in Washington during the sessions of Congress, 



136 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

and made frequent trips back and forth, when the condition 
of his health would have been abundant excuse for less 
strenuous effort." 

He was a keen observer of men, and his large experience 
in legislative business caused him to recognize the value to 
a cause of its being well stated. This undoubtedly led him 
to emphasize strongly, as it was natural for him to do, "the 
study of one's mother tongue," and to give it a larger place 
in the curriculum than is usual in our agricultural colleges. 
In this respect he was master of what he admired. Resolu- 
tions referred to a committee of which he was a member 
were usually returned to the assembly much shorter and 
very much clearer. His annual reports to the Governor 
and Council, and especially his report as chairman of the 
executive committee of the National Association of Agri- 
cultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, show a full 
knowledge of the subject and a conciseness and lucidity 
of statement which reflect the nature of his mind. Hard- 
headed business men, who usually have strong convictions 
that their ideas are right, found him clear and just in his 
statement of the point in controversy. 

A contractor had a large bill against the College, which 
had been running some three years and had been the sub- 
ject of much angry altercation. It was hanging over the 
College when Professor Goodell was elected president, and 
he (the contractor) thought that, before having recourse to 
the law, he would present his bill again. To use his own 
words: "I stated my side of the case and then President 
Goodell stated what he thought would be right for the Col- 
lege and just to me, and I thought so too, and we settled 
in half an hour." 



CONCLUSION 137 

Professor Goodell was a teacher 'par excellence, but after 
he became president, the work of administration gradually 
increased to such an extent that after 1890 he did little 
work in the class-room. But that he was a great success 
there is the unanimous testimony of all who entered his 
room. The testimony of three of his old pupils who have 
attained eminence as educators will give a clear idea of 
his relations with the students in and out of the class- 
room. 

A professor of agriculture writes: "His relations with the 
young men were of the closest. He made them feel his love 
and his interest in them, while at the same time he retained 
their thorough respect. His great ability and sound scholar- 
ship, combined with his great warm heart, his bright and 
genial personal characteristics, his quick and clear percep- 
tions and excellent judgment, made the students feel ab- 
solute confidence in him. They knew he was equal to any 
emergency. They not only felt he was their friend, but 
knew it. He was a rare teacher. He always had perfect 
command of his subject, and the students under him soon 
came to feel a strong desire to work in his subjects." 

The president of an agricultural college writes: "I take 
pleasure in saying that he was one of the most animated 
and inspiring teachers that I ever knew. His class-room 
was always filled with radiations of animation and wit. He 
had an original way of putting things, and expounded every- 
thing with such vim and snap that no one could sleep in his 
class-room and all must listen and learn. As an illustration 
of his quick wit, I remember that a classmate of mine was 
reading German one day, when he unwittingly translated 
the word ' bauer ' as pheasant, whereupon Professor Goodell 



138 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

immediately remarked: 'Don't make game of him, don't 
make game of him.'" 

The eminent diplomatist who represented with distin- 
guished ability the Chinese Empire for some years at 
Washington, Sir Chentung Liang-Cheng, writing from 
Berlin, pays the following tribute to the influence of the 
character of President Goodell: — 

It was my good fortune in my boyhood days spent as a 
student in America, to have enjoyed the friendship and ever- 
inspiring influence of Professor Goodell. And now I avail 
[myself of] the opportimity to express my deep satisfaction 
that a memoir of his life is being written, to perpetuate the 
memory of one whose life of usefulness may be well fol- 
lowed by others. 

Professor Goodell possessed all the human good quali- 
ties which won for him the respect and love of his students, 
his neighbors and his acquaintances. He was a man with a 
big heart, always ready and most cheerful to assist or do a 
kind turn to his fellowmen. He oftentimes sacrificed his 
own wants, in a quiet way, in order to relieve the more ur- 
gent needs of those who were imder his charge. Duty to 
his college, which he had served so faithfully and admir- 
ably, was his foremost interest. He labored incessantly for 
its betterment, notwithstanding his failing health demanded 
a relax of his energies. His cheerfulness never seemed to 
forsake him even under the most perplexing circumstances. 
He was ever ready to have a sympathetic word and impart 
his counsel to the youthful student who sought his guid- 
ance; and was always able to inspire hope and courage. To 



CONCLUSION 139 

be in his association was to survive in an atmosphere of 
cheerfulness and enhghtenment. 

A soldier, as well as educator, one cannot fail to be im- 
pressed by him. The highest citizenship is public welfare 
first and private interest secondary. Nor can one be re- 
strained to be imbued from him that sense of honor, justice, 
duty, and fraternity — all essential qualities for the make- 
up of a successful and a happy life. 

Professor Goodell, in his long valuable service to the 
Massachusetts State Agricultural College, during which 
time a number of my countrymen have received his watch- 
ful care, has moulded the lives of many a sturdy young 
man for the world of usefulness. His life will be cherished 
with grateful memory by all. No profusion of words is 
suflBcient to exalt his noble character. And the same grate- 
ful sentiments will be reechoed from the fields of distant 
Manchuria and from the far-off shores of the Orient. 

Chentung Liang-Cheng. 

Berlin, 25th April, 1911. 

And still another says: "President Goodell was an in- 
spiring teacher, very thorough and exacting in his work, 
and spared himself no pains in making his subjects thor- 
oughly understood by his students. He had a great faculty 
for discerning very quickly whether or not a student under- 
stood the matter he was trying to present, and had little 
patience with shamming or superficial work. From the 
earliest days he evidently had a very strong influence over 
the boys. He was to them a counsellor and companion, one 
whom they admired and trusted. He always impressed me 
as being eminently just. He divorced personal feeling from 
oflSicial duty." 



140 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

To help his classes in history and literature he drew up 
and published "A List of Fictitious Works illustrating His- 
toric Epochs," giving the century when and the country 
where the scenes of the stories were laid. There are some- 
thing like five hundred and fifty entries. He prepared also 
a Chart of Contemporary Sovereigns of Europe. 

Discipline in an army and discipline in a college is an es- 
sential feature in the success of both. President Goodell 
seems to have understood how" to get on with young men. 
As a disciplinarian it has been said by one who had been long 
associated with him in the Faculty: "He was patient and 
long-suffering, but when patience was exhausted and trans- 
gression was continued, he was firm and unyielding in in- 
flicting punishment. He knew when to compromise, and 
the kindness of his heart prompted him to search for every 
avenue of compromise not inconsistent with justice and 
equity. He knew too when not to compromise, and when 
this time came he was ready to stand his ground regardless 
of the consequences personal to himself." 

The faculty of a college are not always " a happy family," 
and it is sometimes more diflScult to govern them than the 
student body. One of President Goodell's predecessors 
is said (on good authority) to have remarked, that "the 
students did not give him half as much trouble as the 
professors and their wives." In answer to the question, 
"What were President Goodell's relations to his Faculty ? " 
the following answer was received from one who had full 
knowledge of the case. 

"In all his relations with his Faculty, President Goodell 
was uniformly kind and considerate. He respected the 
dignity and authority of his Faculty as a governing body. 



CONCLUSION 141 

In cases of severe discipline he always allowed the students 
to have a fair and impartial hearing; but when the Faculty 
had reached a decision and passed sentence, he insisted 
that there should be no appeal and that the sentence be 
executed. He had great sympathy with inexperienced 
teachers. Many an hour did he give in counsel and advice 
to them, trying to bring them lessons from his own experi- 
ence. Even when he thought that the archer would never 
be able successfully to "teach the young idea how to shoot," 
he would hope against hope and give the unfortunate an- 
other chance. Among the many hearts saddened by his 
death not a few were those whom the President had helped 
in the trying task of teaching college students." 

His acquaintances were very numerous. There were 
probably very few men interested in industrial education 
whom he did not know personally; and beyond this, from 
year to year he had been accustomed to appear before 
committees of the Massachusetts Legislature and of the 
National Congress, and became acquainted with the leading 
men in those shifting assemblies, and he never forgot their 
looks or their opinions. Such was his nature that the casual 
acquaintance was so favorably disposed toward him as to 
proceed naturally to esteem and friendship. His circle of 
friends was very large, and included the representatives 
of all conditions, all parties, all races, and all religions. Dif- 
ferences of opinion on important points, and even sharp 
contests where large pecuniary interests were involved, did 
not disturb his feelings toward the friend who opposed. In 
the contest between the Massachusetts Agricultural College 
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in regard 
to the division of the money granted by the Federal govern- 



142 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

ment for agricultural and mechanical education, the two 
contestants, President Goodell and President Francis A. 
Walker, came into court every morning, shook hands, chat- 
ted together and addressed each other by the old familiar 
names of "Frank" and "Harry." Yet each one was dead 
in earnest that he was right, and the other was wrong; 
but when the smoke of the contest had cleared away, it did 
not leave even the shadow of a light cloud on their spirits. 
Indeed his loyalty to his friends was chivalrous. He could 
not desert a friend even when that friend was guilty of 
an unpardonable mistake or even a crime. He illustrated 
in his conduct Emerson's declaration, "A friend may be 
regarded as the masterpiece of Nature." 

President Goodell was a man of deep, strong and active 
humanitarian sentiments. He knew what it cost to be pa- 
triotic in the true sense of the word, in "times that tried 
men's souls," and his interest in his old companions in 
arms was green and fresh to the last. He was a member 
of the Loyal Legion and of the Edwin M. Stanton Grand 
Army post, was commander at one time of the post and 
for many years a member of the relief committee. He 
looked after the memory of the dead with tender care; the 
unfortunate were always an object of his solicitude, and 
his apology for the old soldier, who had lost not a leg or an 
arm, but his self-control, is a fine bit of writing on a high 
plane of morahty. 

Insight as keen as frosty star 
Was to his charity no bar. 

He had a profound sympathy with the toiling millions 
of earth, whose names are writ on water, who have done so 



CONCLUSION 143 

much for man and his advancement, and when talking 
of their situation would often repeat the lines of Bayard 
Taylor, which seem to have been favorites with him. 

The healing of the world 
Is in its nameless Saints. Each separate star 
Seems nothing, but a myriad separate stars 
Break up the night and make it beautiful. 

He was very much interested in the views of Prince 
Kropotkin, especially in his articles on "Mutual Aid" 
which appeared in the "Nineteenth Century." In these 
articles the Prince brought out the fact that the great 
principle of mutual aid gave the best chance for the 
survival of those who best support each other in the 
struggle for life. He began with the lower animals and 
traced it through savagery, barbarism, and every stage 
of civihzation. The wealth of illustration and the tri- 
umphant march of the argument cleared up some vexed 
questions in Goodell's mind and strengthened his opti- 
mistic views by showing that the realization of the golden 
rule was a part of Nature's plan. 

His sympathies were not of a sentimental nature. There 
was hardly a movement for social betterment in his time 
in which he was not interested. But what he did was usu- 
ally done quietly, with the hope to secure a better under- 
standing of the case. His ideas of woman as wife and mother 
have been made suJBSciently evident, but he did not con- 
fine her activities to those important functions and was 
desirous to illustrate her contributions to civilization in 
another direction. For this purpose he gathered materials 
for a paper on "Woman as an Inventor," but failing health 
compelled him to abandon the project for the time being. 



144 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

In 1891, he called the attention of the Executive of the 
Commonwealth to the "sweating system," sending refer- 
ences, to which Governor Russell replied: "I thank you 
very much for your letter of March 9 with its references on 
the 'sweating system,* which I shall be glad to examine." 

In his immediate environment he was a transcendent 
power of beneficent action, but this action was silent in its 
operations and shunned publicity. Indeed, he was one of 
those rare spirits, "who passing through the valley of 
Baca make it a well." 

He was one of the most grateful of men, and his grati- 
tude extended beyond the courteous or kindly act done per- 
sonally to him to the heroes who had struck a blow for 
right, or ennobled life by a heroic deed or beautiful thought. 
This enabled him to appreciate every institution, or opin- 
ion, that had done anything to ennoble the lot of men. He 
probably thought that the monks were men "whose chief 
distinction was to be unmanly"; but he saw one phase of 
their life, and in his address on "The Influence of the Monks 
on Agriculture," he speaks of them as fellow workers. It 
was a luxury to do him a favor, not because he never forgot 
it, but because he made you feel that he stood on that high 
vantage ground where a "grateful mind by owing owes 
not." 

He saw the beauty in the common relations of life, in 
noble conduct, in heroic deeds, in wide sympathies and in 
the aspirations of mankind. Of the invocation at the end 
of the Governor's Proclamation for the annual Thanks- 
giving, — "God save the Commonwealth of Massachu- 
setts," — he said, "It always fills me with uncontrollable 
emotions, and I wonder how anybody can read it in public." 



CONCLUSION 145 

He loved to read that stirring Lyric of Brownell, "The 
Bay Fight," when "Farragut's Flag was flying," but he 
could never get beyond the passage beginning: "Up went 
the white." What follows is a vivid description of the sud- 
den change that comes over brave men, all savage with 
fight, when they come to look at the cost of victory, the 
dead, the dying, the wounded, and think of the heartrend- 
ing sorrows that come to men, women and little children 
in some far-away and once happy home. 

Although not "a book man," or a collector of books, in 
the ordinary sense, he was a lover of books and familiar 
with the great masters of our speech from Chaucer to 
Tennyson. Literature was to him not so much an inter- 
preter of nature and man, as a revelation of the widening 
possibilities of human life, of finer modes of feeling, and of 
nobler thoughts. Of the older writers, Edmund Spenser 
seems to have been a favorite, and as he entered the long 
picture-gallery of the "Faerie Queene," he felt as Milton 
did: "Our sage and serious Spenser is a better teacher than 
Scotus or Aquinas." The old dramatists, who are known 
to the great majority of modern readers only by name, were 
a mine in which he worked, and he made extensive studies 
of some of them, Massinger seems to have been his favorite. 
He possessed in a remarkable degree "retentiveness," 
which George Eliot calls "a rare and massive power, like 
fortitude." It is indeed a happy gift to be able to enjoy and 
profit by a good book and keep both the enjoyment and 
the profit as a perpetual inheritance. He had a remarkably 
retentive memory which served him well both in work and 
play. The scenes he had witnessed, the persons he had met, 
the heroic deeds and noble thoughts of which he had heard 



146 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

or read, seemed to hang to it as clusters of grapes to their 
stem, always ripe and ready for use. But, more than this, 
he had a peculiar memory for queer things and odd scraps 
of poetry, old saws, bits of simon-pure nonsense, the blun- 
ders or unfortunate speeches of his friends, and he had an 
abrupt way of addressing them, suggested by some curious 
thing in the past. One of his students, now the president of 
an agricultural college, he usually accosted with some long 
German compound, as — " Constantinopolischerdudel- 
sackspleikugesellschaft ! " 

While this love of literature left a charming impression 
upon his reports and addresses, and, as we have seen, was 
carried into the curriculum of the college, it made itseK felt 
in another and very practical way. Year by year we find 
a statement in the annual report of the value of the library, 
and the statements grow stronger with advancing years. 
"What tools and stock are to the workman," he says, 
"books are to the professor and students. The library is 
the right arm of the instructor and the most important 
factor in the education of the pupil. There is no one thing 
which conduces so powerfully to intellectual growth and 
activity in a college as a general and intelligent use of the 
library." Again, "In its relations to education the hbrary 
goes hand in hand with the instruction in the recitation 
room and is its strongest support. It touches the pupil and 
the teacher alike, and is the fountain-head from which each 
department draws its inspiration." In the last report but 
one he says: "The hbrary should be kept up to the very 
highest state of efficiency. It is really the pivot on which 
the whole college turns and should be the very centre of 
college life." He acted for many years as hbrarian, and gave 



CONCLUSION 147 

a good deal of thought and the best part of his spare time 
to building up and strengthening the library along the 
lines of study pursued in the college. As the result of his 
untiring efforts it became one of the best equipped libra- 
ries for its purpose in the country, and one that the people 
of the Commonwealth have a just right to be proud of. 
Toward the last he began to call attention to its limited 
quarters and said that a new fire-proof building would be 
needed in the near future. 

But his interest in libraries was not confined to that of 
the college. He lent a helping hand in building up the li- 
brary of the town of Amherst. With this institution he 
was connected in various ways for twenty -seven years, and 
here as everywhere he was not a figure-head, or contented 
to give a little good advice, but a worker. It is said that the 
card-catalogue contains some seven thousand entries in 
his handwriting. He thought that the libraries of the land- 
grant colleges should be enriched by the publications of the 
government, and that so important a matter should not 
be left to the representatives of the various states in Con- 
gress but should be upon a firm basis. To accomplish this 
he conunenced a campaign with great earnestness. In 
reply to his appeal Senator George F. Hoar writes: — 

February 24, 1900 

My deab President Goodell, — I think the Land- 
Grant Colleges should all be public depositories of public 
documents, and I will endeavor to have the pending bill 
so amended as to accomplish the purpose. 

I am faithfully yours, 

Geo. F. Hoae. 



148 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Many of the symbols of religion in common use were ex- 
ceedingly distasteful to him on account of what seemed 
to him their coarse and vulgar materialism, and he did 
not possess the faculty of spiritualizing that which had 
no possible suggestion of the spirit. Of religion itself he said 
little and of theology nothing, especially in his later years. 
His early impressions on the subject were calvinistic in their 
tone and temper and would probably seem rigid from the 
standpoint of to-day. But Calvinism was in its best days 
one of the finest schools for the education of the domestic 
affections the world has ever seen, and his loyalty to the 
memory of his father and his teachings may have led to 
his reticence on this subject. During freshman year (No- 
vember 14, 1858) he united with the church connected with 
Amherst College, and seems never to have severed his 
relations with it. But after his marriage, as there was no 
church of the denomination his wife preferred in town, a 
compromise was made and they worshiped at the Episco- 
pal church. Although he was never a communicant he held 
several offices in the society and was clerk of the parish 
long after his position as president made it incumbent on 
him to attend services at the College chapel, although he 
always maintained that the college, being a state institu- 
tion, should not be connected with any particular form of 
religion. There is every evidence that he was attracted by 
the preacher more than by any dogmas he might or might 
not teach. When a young man he used to attend, as oppor- 
tunity offered, services at the West (Unitarian) Church, 
Boston, and he wrote that when his family heard of it they 
were both shocked and alarmed, but he said that he did not 
know that he was walking in the paths of Satan until they 



CONCLUSION 149 

told him. The truth was that the preacher's poetic inter- 
pretation of things and events, and the Hght he threw on 
the hidden beauty and inner meaning of the common re- 
lations of life, fascinated him. He was looking for what the 
preacher suggested concerning the significance and reality 
of daily hfe, rather than for either of the doxies, and he saw 
neither. His mind was so liberal that there was probably 
not a church in Christendom with whom he could not have 
worshiped, but it is very doubtful whether he would have 
imited with any of them. 

When asked what he thought of death, he replied: "It is 
a perfectly natural event and that is all we know about it." 
To funerals as usually conducted he had an instinctive 
aversion. His cheerful and hopeful nature recoiled from 
the amount of doleful and depressing Scripture commonly 
read, and the dark symbols of mortality so often exhibited 
were not in accordance with his feelings or thoughts on 
such occasions. "How easy," he said in going away from 
the funeral of one of his friends, "how easy it would have 
been to have selected some Scripture that would have 
cheered and comforted instead of that which was so chilly 
and heartless! It was enough to give one the nightmare." 

It is easier to get a look at the true inwardness of the 
moral and rehgious tone of a man's mind and nature by 
what he loves than by what he says. In talking with a 
friend as they sat on the piazza of his home, the conversa- 
tion turned on favorite passages in literature; and after the 
exchange of quite a number, he went into the library and 
brought out a copy of Edmund Spenser, and turning to the 
8th Canto of the second book of the" Faerie Queene," read 
not without emotion the two opening stanzas: — 



150 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

And is there care in heaven? And is there love 
In heavenly spirits to these creatures bace 
That may compassion of their evilles move? 
There is : else much more wretched were the cace 
Of men then beasts. But O! th' exceeding grace 
Of highest God that loves his creatures so. 
And all his workes with mercy doth embrace. 
That blessed Angels he sends to and fro. 
To serve to wicked men, to serve his wicked foe. 

" How oft do they their silver bowers leave. 
To come to succour us that succour want! 
How oft do they with golden pineons cleave 
The flitting skyes, Uke flying Pursuivant, 
Against fowle feendes to ayd us militant! 
They for us fight, they watch and dewly ward. 
And their bright Squadrons round about us plant: 
And all for love, and nothing for reward. 
O! why should hevenly God to men have such regard?" 

A man who really feels what these lines express, — that 
there is an eternal guardianship of the individual and his 
highest interests by an infinitely wise and intelligent good- 
ness; that the air of this world is filled with ministering 
powers and helpful judgments, — has arrived at a very 
high altitude of experience. Come what may, be it sun- 
shine or storm, victory or apparent defeat, it is all the same 
to him. Cheerfulness, hopefulness and courage will inspire 
him to the work that is before him, and no stormy night, 
however dark, can quench the genial light that emanates 
from the thought of a living God in a living Humanity. 

Henry Hill Goodell did the work of a true man. He was 
a brave soldier, an inspiring teacher, an able administra- 
tor, an active citizen, and a dear good friend. Into all these 
relations and duties he put a fine spirit of mingled cheerful- 
ness, hopefulness and courage. The monuments he has 



CONCLUSION 151 

built in the hearts of his many friends may seem even now 
to be crumbling to the dust; but things are not as they 
seem; they will stand "while time and thought and being 
last and immortality endures." He was an important fac- 
tor at the beginning of a great work destined to be of in- 
calculable importance to a great people; and when its his- 
tory is written he will appear as a wise and courageous 
pioneer and be assigned to his rightful place by an admiring 
and grateful posterity. 



ADDRESSES 



HOW THE PAY OF A REGIMENT WAS 
CARRIED TO NEW ORLEANS ^ 

You have done me the honor to ask me to address you 
to-night on some personal incidents connected with the 
late war, and I accept the more gladly because, when those 
stirring scenes were being enacted, you who sit before me 
to-night were only a possibility and had not then become 
an actuality. It seems hard to believe that a generation 
has passed away — a whole generation of breathing, speak- 
ing men; and when another thirty years has gone, there will 
remain few if any survivors to tell the story of those days. 
It is fitting then, before the whole has faded into a dream 
of the past, enveloped by that haze which time eventually 
throws round everything of bygone times, to try and recall 
some few of its features. What was worth fighting for dur- 
ing four years is worth talking about now — not boastingly, 
but reverently, forever and forever and forever. 

If law and order, honor, civil right — 

If they wan't worth it, what was worth a fight? 

Happily all strife is ended. The loyal conunon sense of 
the nation demands and will have a real peace, that means 

^ This address was prepared for the Grand Army post in Amherst, and 
was afterwards repeated, with some alterations, at the request of the 
students of the Agricultural College. As here printed it was delivered to 
the students. 



156 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

a peace of political life, not the peace of political death. 
"No North! No South! No East! No West! But one 
people," — as our lamented Governor, in his matchless ad- 
dress at Chattanooga, puts it, — " but one people, animated 
by one purpose as splendid as ever the heart of man con- 
ceived, — with one destiny, so grand and high that it fills 
the future with a glory such as the sons of men never looked 
on before." 

Old Homer in his blindness understood this when he put 
into the mouth of the gallant Trojan these words: "Tell me 
not of auguries. Let your birds fly to the East or to the 
West. I care not in this cause; we obey the will of Zeus who 
rules over us all, and our own best omen is our country's 
cause." 

Did you ever think how large a part sentiment plays in 
the great crises of the world .f* In the ordinary affairs of life 
one acute Yankee peddler mind is worth more for service 
to his day and generation than forty poetic souls; but when 
the storm and strife of politics split states, and we are where 
steel and not gold will get us honorably and honestly out, 
and the world is war, then it is that the sentimental side 
of human nature, that sentiment that poets and thinkers 
feel, steps to the front and leads where the peddler nature 
dares not lead the way. The men who hold the widest sway 
in the hearts of humanity, who have defended liberty when 
assaulted, who have poured oil and heahng balm into her 
wounds after battle, are the men of this sort, men of this 
deep, poetic instinct, this moral tenderness, this apprecia- 
tion of the immortal. It is all that survives of the influence 
of Greece and Rome, of every ancient state. Sparta, a land 
of soldiers and slaves, gave us nothing; but the airy-minded 



ADDRESSES 157 

Athenian, the antique dreamer, holds the ear and the eye 
of the race to-day. PhiHp and his phalanx drove Demos- 
thenes to death; while Demosthenes touches the lips of 
every fiery-souled orator that has ever stirred us to tears 
or rage. It is Plato's page against the sword of Sparta. It 
is the diflFerence between Hamilton, the financial savior of 
a poor and struggling nation, and Jay Gould, the mere 
dancing bear of a stock-market, — the statesman versus 
the speculator. It is Napoleon at Wagram, riding up and 
down his shot-riddled ranks to save his crown, as opposed 
to Winthrop or Shaw leading the assault to save his coun- 
try. It is the man who thought and fought for all time as 
opposed to the man who fought only for himself and his 
little hour. It is spirituality against sordidness; it is high 
thoughts against low; it is the visible against the invisible; 
it is the dollar against the whole duty of man; it is the world 
and its baseness against heaven and its purity. 

There has been a great amount of nonsense written about 
the war and its heroes. In books, war is most dramatic 
and poetic reading; in life it is horrid cruelty, pure, unadul- 
terated cruelty — the savagery of wild beasts. The harvest 
blackens beneath its breath, the sweet, fair flowers cower 
and pale at its approach. The springing grass is crushed 
under the ceaseless roll of artillery wheels, or is dyed a 
crimson red, drunk with the blood of heroes. Leonidas and 
his brave three hundred, dark with the dust and blood of 
conflict, — that was real war, and yet fair ladies who have 
read their story with kindling eyes and burning cheek would 
have thought them no lovely sight in their hour of travail. 
The hero of a Sunday-school book is sometimes a muff or a 
milk-sop, sometimes a fair ideal; but the hero of a battle- 



158 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

field, grimed with powder, ay, sometimes black with guilt, 
is life, — haK-humanities, half -brutalities. Shakespere 
makes Norfolk in the play say : — 

"As gentle and as jocund, as to jest 
Go I to fight." 

There are natures, I suppose, occasionally, who really 
feel the joy of conflict and go as jocund to a fray as to a 
feast; but in my heart of hearts I cannot help suspecting 
them. Thank heaven ! they are few and far between. No- 
body sane and fairly intelligent ever went out to try conclu- 
sions with death in this dancing humor, and the heroism 
of the boys in blue had little of pride and pomp, of sounding 
music and streaming banner and "Vive I'Empereur" bois- 
terousness about it. No! there was nothing of the kid- 
glove review or pomp and finish of a dress parade about 
their battles. With faces drawn and gray, with heart in 
mouth and pulse beating like a trip-hammer, men stood and 
fought, wondering whether they could possibly hold on a 
single moment longer, wondering whether it were possible 
they could ever get out alive, and yet fixing their unyield- 
ing feet as firmly in the earth as a badger's claws and mak- 
ing a badger's bitter fight, simply because it was the hard 
but single road to their full duty. Homely heroes they were, 
but as genuine specimens as ever fought at the front and 
fell where they fought. 

It is not pleasant to think that a man with heroism 
enough to rally a losing fight by personal exposure should 
not be noble all the way through, but human nature is often 
like a pocket-mine out of which may come great nuggets, 
but no continuous yield. So the man who astonishes you 



ADDRESSES 159 

by taking his life in his hands and heroically exposing it 
may often disappoint you by sordidness when you expect 
continuous and consistent sacrifice. There was none of 
the romance of historical heroism about our boys : in camp 
there was something of the meanness, something of the 
hypocrisy, something of the cowardice and blatant boast- 
ing found among mankind out of camps; but this was ex- 
ceptional where sufiFering and privation and peril were 
daily probing every man to the very marrowbones of his 
manhood. There is sturdy, admirable manliness in dying 
bravely for error, but there is more than manliness, there 
is magnificent moral sense, in dying for truth. Courage 
alone is not a patent of nobility, for Macbeth, steeped to 
his lips in crime, teemed with valor, with desperate, Satanic, 
self -preservative, not self -abnegating instinct. Martyrdom 
is of itself no proof of morality; many a so-called martyr's 
ashes are not worth collecting; the smoke of his sacrifice 
only vexed the sweet air of heaven, and his blood was the 
seed of no church that was worth humanity's sustaining. 

The poor drunken wretches in tattered clothes, reeling 
through our streets to-day, but wearing the button of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, are not pleasant objects to 
contemplate and are too often dismissed with sneer and 
scorn. But never forget the debt of gratitude you owe them. 
Life was just as dear to them as to you, but they risked it. 
Death was just as much an object of fear to them as to you, 
but they dared it. And for what? For a mere bit of senti- 
ment? For a bit of bunting bearing a square of blue, sown 
with stars, and barred with stripes of red and white? No! 
not that. But for an idea, a principle, eternal as the ever- 
lasting hills, — for right, for justice, for humanity. Forgive 



160 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

them then for the sake of the victory they won. Forgive 
them for the blood they lavishly pom-ed out. Forgive them 
for the lives they freely offered. 

Martyrs for freedom cannot die. 

When marches end, when strifes are o'er. 
In deathless deeds they live, whose sleep 

The roll-call shall disturb no more. 

I have wandered far from my subject, but I could not 
help giving expression to the thoughts that have so often 
burned within me, as sitting on the chapel stage I have 
looked down into your faces and realized how little you 
could possibly know or feel the great heart-throbs of your 
country during the years 1861 to 1865. But you have asked 
me for some personal reminiscence, and discarding those 
of general interest, I have selected an incident which may 
be entitled, "How the pay of a regiment was carried to 
New Orleans." 

It was the spring of 1863, and General Banks had inau- 
gurated the campaign which ended in the capture of the 
last rebel stronghold. We had marched to the very out- 
works of Port Hudson and engaged the Confederate forces 
on that historic night, when, lashed to the main-top high 
above the boiling surges, stout-hearted Farragut drove his 
vessels through the storm of shot and shell that was hurled 
upon him from the heights above, and cut the rebel com- 
munications between Port Hudson and Vicksburg. These 
two fortified places were the only ones left on the Missis- 
sippi not in our hands. Grant was already hammering at 
Vicksburg, but before Port Hudson could be invested, it 
was necessary to dispose of General Taylor and his forces. 



ADDRESSES 161 

who from their position in the south could fall upon our un- 
protected rear or make a dash for New Orleans. Returning 
then to our camp at Baton Rouge, after a few days' rest, 
we were suddenly divided into two forces, one marching 
down through the country to engage the enemy at New 
Iberia, and the rest of us sent round by water and up through 
the Atchafalaya to intercept and cut them to pieces. 

It was only a partial success. Driven from their position 
in Fort Bisland, they fell upon us in their retreat before 
we were fairly in position, and held us in check while the 
whole army slipped by. Then commenced the long pursuit, 
enlivened by daily skirmish and fighting, which lasted 
from the shores of the Gulf to Shreveport in the extreme 
northwestern corner of the State, where they were driven 
across the border into Texas. 

It was on this march that the incident occurred which I 
am about to narrate. We had been marching all day, in 
fact from before the dawn, trying to reach the Bayou Ver- 
milion before the enemy could destroy the bridge. Men fell 
out by the score, but still we hurried on with all the speed 
our wearied limbs could support. Just as it was growing too 
dark to see, a battery opened upon us and there was a sharp 
charge of cavalry. We were hastily thrown into position 
to receive them, but in an instant, wheeling, they had 
dashed across the bridge, destroying it in our very faces 
before it could be prevented. 

The next day was Sunday, and while we camped there, 
waiting for the construction of a new bridge, about half 
the advance division took the opportunity to strip and go 
in bathing. Suddenly, without an instant's warning, a troop 
of cavalry dashed down the opposite bank and opened fire 



162 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

upon us. Such a spectacle never before was seen. The long 
roll was sounding, and naked men in every direction were 
making a dash for their gims, trying to dress as they ran. 
Some, with their trousers on hindside before, did n't know 
whether they were advancing or retreating and ran the 
wrong way; others, with simply a shirt and cap, were try- 
ing to adjust their belts. Officers were swearing and mounted 
aides were dashing about trying to bring order out of con- 
fusion. It was the foundation of the story Kipling tells of 
the parade after the taking of Lungtungpen. "Thin we 
halted and formed up, the wimmen howling in the houses 
and Lift'nint Brazenose blushin' pink in the light av the 
mornin' sun. 'T was the most ondasint parade I iver tuk a 
hand in. Foive and twenty privits an' a officer uv the line 
in review order, an' not so much as wud dust a fife betune 
'em all in the way of clothin'. Eight av us had their belts 
an' pouches on; but the rest had gone in wid a handful of 
cartridges an' the skin God gave thim. They was as nakid 
as Vanus." 

The next day we were ordered to Barrett's Landing to 
act as guard for a steamer coming up through the bayous 
with supplies, and here my story properly begins. 

It was April 22, 1863, and the regiment, exhausted by 
the conflict of the 14th and the rapid march ensuing, fol- 
lowing hard upon the track of Taylor's flying forces, from 
Franklin on to Opelousas, was resting at Barrett's Landing, 
when suddenly the whole camp was thrown into a ferment 
and fever of excitement by the news that the paymaster 
had arrived and would be at headquarters at twelve o'clock. 
Oh, welcome news to men who had been without pay for 
six months ! How the eye glistened, and the mouth watered 



ADDRESSES 163 

for the leeks and fleshpots of Louisiana! What visions of 
sutler's delicacies opened up once more to those whom long 
tick had gradually restricted to a Spartan diet of hard tack 
and salt pork ! What thoughts of home and the money that 
could be sent to loved ones far away, suffering perhaps for 
lack of that very money ! But how to do it — there was 
the question. Here we were in the very heart of the rebel 
country, two hundred miles at least from New Orleans, 
in the midst of an active campaign. No opportunity to 
send letters except such as chance threw in the way, 
and no certainty that such letters would ever reach their 
destination. Added to this came the order to be ready to 
march at four o'clock. Whither we knew not; but the foe 
was ahead, and our late experience had taught us that 
life was but an uncertain element and that a rebel bullet 
had a very careless way of seeking out and finding its 
victims. 

In the midst of all the bustle and confusion, the sergeant- 
major came tearing along through the camp, excitedly 
inquiring for Lieutenant Goodell. That estimable officer, I 
am sorry to say, having received no pay, owing to some 
informahty in his papers when mustered in from second to 
first heutenant, had retired into the shade of a neighboring 
magnolia tree and was there meditating on the cussedness 
of paymasters, mustering officers, the army in general. In 
fact everything looked uncommonly black, and never be- 
fore had he so strongly believed in universal damnation. 
To him, then, thus communing, came long-legged Symonds, 
the sergeant-major, and said: "You will report for duty at 
once to head-quarters. You are directed to receive the pay 
of the regiment and proceed forthwith to New Orleans, 



164 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

there to express it home, returning to the regiment as soon 
thereafter as practicable." 

Gone at once were my sulks, — vanished in an instant 
my ill-humor, black demons and everything. Though I 
could not help wondering how in all creation I was going 
to perform a journey of several hundred miles, that would 
occupy a week at least, without a cent of money in my 
pocket. A clerk was detailed to asist me, and for the next 
hour I counted money over a hard-tack box, jamming it 
away instantly into my haversack, while he entered in a lit- 
tle book the amounts received from each person, the sums 
given to pay for its expressage, and the addresses to which 
it was to be sent. No time to make change. Even sums 
were given, counted, and tucked away with a rapidity 
which, it seems to me now, could not have been equaled 
even by the deft cashier of our own First National. 

At the landing was a little stern-wheel steamer, captured 
from the rebels, which was to leave for Brashear City in an 
hour or two. The sick and wounded were hastily transferred 
to it, and as the regiment marched ofiF, I stepped on board, 
with my precious haversack, now swollen out to unwonted 
proportions. Not a stateroom, not a berth was to be had. 
There was no safe in which I could deposit valuables. Too 
many knew what I was carrying, and I dared not for an 
instant lift the weight from my shoulders, or remove my 
sword and pistol. Like Mary's lamb, where'er I went, the 
haversack was sure to go. 

Never shall I forget the beauty of that sail, and, but for 
the feeling of distrust and suspicion that made me look 
upon every man that approached me as a personal enemy, 
I should have thoroughly enjoyed it. We were dropping 



ADDRESSES 165 

down one of those little bayous that intersect the State in 
every direction. The spring freshets had swollen the stream 
and set its waters far back into the forests that lined its 
banks on either side. Festoons of Spanish moss drooped 
like a mourning veil from bough to bough. Running vines 
with bright-colored sprays of flowers twined in and out 
among the branches of the trees. The purple passion flower 
flung out its starry blossoms to the world, the sign and sym- 
bol of a suffering Saviour, — while the air was heavy with 
the scent of magnolias and yellow jessamines. Crested 
herons, snowy white, rose from the water, and, stretching 
their long necks and legs out into a straight line with their 
bodies, winged their flight above the tree-tops; pelicans 
displayed their ungainly forms as they snapped at the pass- 
ing fish and neatly laid them away for future reference in 
their pouches; strange birds of gaudy plumage flew from 
side to side, harshly screaming as they hid themselves in the 
dense foliage. Huge alligators sunned themselves along 
the shore, or showed their savage muzzles as they slowly 
swam across our path. Frequently, at some sharp bend, it 
seemed as if we must certainly run ashore; but, the engine 
being reversed, the current would swing the bow round, and 
by dint of hard pushing with poles, we would escape the 
threatened danger, and start again in our new direction. 

Sunset faded into twilight, and twilight deepened into 
the darkness and silence of a Southern night, — and then 
the entire loneliness and responsibility of my position sud- 
denly overwhelmed me. I had no place to lie down, and 
hardly dared sit, for fear of falling asleep. It seemed as 
though I could hear whispers behind me, and every now 
and then I would catch myself nodding, and wake with a 



166 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

cold chill running up and down the small of my back, as I 
felt sure that some unlawful hand was tampering with my 
burden. With the coming of the dawn, I breathed more 
freely, but the day seemed interminable, and it became a 
very burden to live. Twice we broke down, and tying up 
to a friendly tree repaired the damage. Night came again, 
and found us still miles away from our destination. It was 
horrible. I walked the deck — drank coffee — pinched my- 
self — ran pins into my legs. "Oh, if I can only keep 
awake!" I kept repeating to myself. But at two o'clock in 
the morning we broke down again, with the prospect of being 
detained some hours. I knew that, if I did not reach Brashear 
City by seven o'clock, I should be another dreary day on 
the way, and lose my connections with the single train for 
New Orleans. Time was an element of importance, for I 
should lose the mail steamer for New York and be delayed 
in my return to the regiment, which I had left in the heart 
of Louisiana, marching onward — I knew not where, but 
with faces set towards the North, 

Finding that we were distant from eight to twelve miles 
across country, according to the different estimates, I deter- 
mined to make the attempt to reach it on foot. Any danger, 
anything seemed preferable to staying on the boat. With 
the first breaking of the dawn, when I could get my bear- 
ings, I slung myself ashore. A private in my regiment, 
discharged for disability, begged to accompany me. With 
weapons ready for instant use, we pushed along, afraid of 
our own shadows, looking for a lurking foe behind every 
bush; and when some startled bird suddenly broke from its 
covert, the heart of one, at least, stood still for a moment, 
and then throbbed away like a steam-engine. If a man was 



ADDRESSES 167 

seen, however distant, we dropped to cover and watched 
him out of sight before we dared move. For the first mile 
our progress was very slow — now wading through water, 
now sinking in the mud, floundering about as best we could, 
while the mosquitoes and gnats settled down on us in 
swarms, uttering a triumphant buzzing as though they 
recognized the fact that they had fresher blood to feed on 
than that offered by the fever-stricken victims of the 
South, and were determined to make the most of their oppor- 
tunity. But the open country once reached, we lengthened 
out our steps and struck into a six-mile gait. Soon my com- 
panion began to falter and fall behind. But I could not af- 
ford to wait. Telling him that I presumed he was all right, 
but I could not run any risks, I stood him up by a tree, and 
taking his gun, marched off a couple of hundred yards, then 
laying it down, I shouted to him to come on, and, setting 
off at the top of my speed, saw him no more. Whether he 
ever reached his destination, or whether — wandering 
helplessly along — he was swooped down upon by some 
guerilla and led away to starve and die in a Southern 
prison, I did not learn for many years. But at the last re- 
union I attended, having been called on to respond to the 
toast, "The postal service of the regiment and what you 
know about it," at the conclusion of my remarks, a stout, 
grizzled veteran grasped my hand and said: "Loot, I'm 
glad to see you. I thought it pretty cruel of you to leave 
me alone in Dixie, but you had warned me beforehand, 
and I guess you were right." 

Avoiding the houses and striking across the fields, I made 
the last part of the way at full run, and drew up panting and 
exhausted at Berwick Bay shortly after six. Not a moment 



168 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

was to be lost. I could hear the engine puffing across the 
waters. Shouting to a darkey who seemed to rise up pre- 
ternaturally out of the ground, I ordered him to row me 
over; and a more astonished man I think I never saw, than 
he was, when, on reaching the opposite shore, with but 
ten minutes to spare, I bolted from the boat without a word 
and started on the run for headquarters. The general was 
asleep, but an aide carried in my pass, signed by General 
Banks, brought it back countersigned, and in five minutes 
more I was aboard the train moving on to New Orleans. 

Of this part of my journey I have a very indistinct re- 
membrance. My impression is that I dozed whenever I 
sat down, and I was so dog-tired I could hardly stand. I 
had had nothing to eat since the night before, and was faint 
and exhausted with hunger and my exertions. Nothing 
but the special training my class had taken in the gymna- 
sium during the previous year for just such an emergency 
pulled me through the long run and long fast following it. 
It was only a run of one hundred miles, but I think we must 
have stopped to wood and water at every cottonwood grove 
and swamp along the way; and I remember at one of these 
periodical stops going out on the platform and there falling 
into an altercation with a little red-headed doctor, who — 
whether he had scented my secret or not, with that divine 
intuition for discovering the hidden peculiar to the craft, 
— had made himself officiously offensive to me, and now 
wanted to borrow my revolver to shoot a copper-head that 
lay coiled up by the side of the track. Refused in that, he 
next wanted to examine my sword; and when, under some 
triffing pretext, I abruptly left him, and, going inside the 
car, sat down as near as possible to a bluff -looking lieuten- 



ADDRESSES 169 

ant, whose honest face seemed a true indication of char- 
acter, his wrath knew no bounds and was quite out-spoken. 
Peace to your injured spirit, oh fiery-headed son of Es- 
culapius, if you are still in the land of the living! I here 
tender you my humble apologies. Doubtless you intended 
nothing more than to compare the eflSciency of my leaden 
balls with one of your own deadly boluses, or to see how my 
cleaver compared in sharpness with one of your own little 
scalpels. But at that particular time I should have been 
suspicious of my own brother had he desired to inspect or 
use my arms. 

It was late Saturday afternoon, when, tired, and faint, 
the ferry landed me in the city. Pushing straight to the 
office of the Adams Express Company, I told them I had 
the pay of a regiment to express home, and wanted five or 
six hundred money-blanks and envelopes. I shall never 
forget the look of incredulity with which the clerk looked 
at me. I was dirty and ragged, just in from the front — 
wore no shoulder-straps, for we had been ordered to remove 
them and diminish the chances of being picked off by the 
sharp-shooters, but had sword and pistol and an innocent- 
looking haversack hanging at my side. However, he said 
not a word but passed over the papers. 

My next adventure was in a saloon, where, on calling 
for a drink of whiskey, I was informed that they were not 
allowed to sell to privates. On my throwing down my pass 
signed by General Banks, the courteous keeper acknow- 
ledged his mistake, and invited me to take something at his 
expense. Immediately after supper, to which — it is hardly 
necessary to say — I was accompanied by that confounded 
haversack (I fairly loathed it by this time), I retired to my 



170 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

room, locked the door and went to work. Excitement kept 
me up and by two o'clock everything was done; the money 
counted and placed in the envelopes, and the blanks filled 
out, and the footing correctly made. Then only did I know 
how much I had carried with me, and how precious were 
the contents of my haversack. Barricading my door with 
the table, and wedging a chair in between it and the bed, 
I thrust the haversack between the sheets, slid in after it, 
laid my revolver by the pillow, and in an instant was sound 
asleep. The next morning, on going down to breakfast, 
I innocently inquired of the clerk in the office if he would 
give me a receipt for valuables. "Certainly," was his smil- 
ing rejoinder, "for how much.?" — "$24,346," I repHed, 
and half-opening my haversack, showed him the bundles of 
express envelopes, explaining that it was the pay of a regi- 
ment. "Where did you keep this last night? " was the next 
question. "In my room." — "You d — fool, it might have 
been stolen." — "True, but I thought it would be safe 
enough, and besides I did not know how much I had." 

Breakfast over, I repaired at once to the office of the ex- 
press company, and by noon, with my receipts in my 
pocket, I stepped forth feeling as if a gigantic load had 
been rolled from my shoulders. 

Of my journey back there is no need to speak : but suf- 
fice it to say that two or three weeks thereafter, one night 
as the sun was setting, I stood with beating heart on the 
levee, outside of Simsport on the Red River, waiting for 
the coming of the regiment on its march down from Alexan- 
dria. Column after column passed and still I waited. But 
suddenly I caught the roll of drums and there came a dim- 
ness over my eyes, for I recognized familiar forms. The 



ADDRESSES 171 

colonel riding at the head — the little drum-major — the 
colors and each well-known face. As they came up and I 
saluted, some one recognized me and called my name. 
Instantly the cry, "Lieutenant Goodell has come!" swept 
down the line, and with one mighty shout the boys wel- 
comed back the bearer of their pay. That night I went 
from campfire to campfire and gave to each orderly ser- 
geant the receipts for his company. Of all that money only 
one envelope went astray, and the express company made 
good the loss. 

But one more incident remains to be told, and then my 
story is done. It seems that, owing to my delay in returning 
to the regiment (having to wait for transportation more 
than a week), the men began to get uneasy, and finally one 
day a man hinted that I had made off with the money. 
Instantly the little drum-major, whom I had once rescued 
in an evil phght in Hartford where we were encamped, 
leaped at him, knocked him down and gave him such a 
licking as he had not had since his childhood days, when, 
stretched across the maternal knee, he shed bitter tears, 
as the shingle sought and found him every time. 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS AND THEIR 
AGRICULTURE 

The subject assigned me to-night is the Channel Islands 
and their agriculture. There is no more interesting spot on 
the face of the globe, and none that displays sharper con- 
trasts. Geographically belonging to France, territorially 
they form an outlying dependency of the British crown. 
Apparently most barren and unfertile of soil, they yield 
crops rivaling in richness those of the virgin plains of our 
owTi great West. Rent and torn by the waves that rush in 
upon them from the Atlantic, lashed by the refluent surge 
from the coast of France, and swept by the boiling tides that 
under favoring circumstances rise to a height of over forty 
feet, they find in the floating sea-wrack of the very waves 
which threaten their existence the chief element of their f er- 
tiUty. Lying at the very entrance of the English Channel, 
just where it broadens out and loses itself in the immensity 
of the ocean, and exposed to every wind that blows, they yet 
enjoy a climate so equable and mild that the flowers of the 
tropics bloom there the year round in the open air. 

No less remarkable in their characteristics are the people. 
Calling themselves Englishmen, they yet speak a patois of 
French impossible to be understood by any one not native 
born, and compel its use in school and court. Blindly adher- 
ent to ancient law and custom, they have made themselves 
known the world over for the advanced position they have 
taken on all matters pertaining to agriculture. Jealously re- 



ADDRESSES 173 

sisting every encroachment upon their Hberties, and so inde- 
pendent that all laws affecting them have first to be passed 
upon and approved by their own States before becoming 
valid, they yet are the most loyal of subjects and tena- 
cious in their support of the crown. The last of the great 
French possessions united to England when William the 
Conqueror crossed the Channel and overthrew the Saxon 
dynasty, they have remained through all these years 
unshaken in their fidelity to the representatives of their 
hereditary sovereigns. Race, language, contiguity of terri- 
tory, would seem to have allied them to Norman France; 
yet so sHght was the bond that held them, that shortly after 
the separation we find this added petition in their htany: 
"From the fury of the Norman, good Lord deliver us." 
Undoubtedly in bygone ages, before subsidence had taken 
place, these islands formed a part of the continent, and were 
actually joined to France; but now they stand like sentinels, 
lone outposts, surrounded by rushing tides and raging seas, 
which in their ceaseless action have eaten out and swept 
away the softer and more friable rocks, leaving only a "fret 
work of those harder barriers that still resist attack, and are 
enabled to present a bold and serried front against their 
relentless enemy." 

The Channel Islands are six in number, namely, Jersey, 
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Jethou and Herm, and lie one 
hundred miles south of England and fifteen from the shores 
of France, being well within a line drawn parallel to the 
coast, from the end of the peninsula on which Cherbourg is 
built. The two largest of these — Jersey and Guernsey — 
are the ones with which we shall concern ourselves to-night. 
Small in area, mere dots on the surface of the globe, they 



174 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

yet have won for themselves a name and place in the agri- 
culture of every civilized nation of the world. The first, 
some eleven miles in length by five and a haK in breadth, 
covers an area of 28,717 acres; the second, nine and a half 
miles in length by six and a half in breadth, contains about 
19,705 acres. Of these areas scarce two-thirds is land that 
can be cultivated, for we must bear in mind that the forma- 
tion is mostly granite, rising in cliffs from two hundred to 
four hundred feet, with deep indentations and wide encirc- 
ling bays where the sea has eaten into the shore. From 
the elevated crest to the water's edge is a "wide margin of 
descent upon which fertile soil cannot accumulate, and a 
poor and scanty pasturage, its only possible produce, is gen- 
erally more or less overpowered by brake, gorse and heath." 

As you approach the Jersey coast nothing more pictur- 
esque can well be imagined. Ten miles of granite cliff stretch- 
ing along its northern exposure, two hundred and forty to 
four hundred and eighty -five feet inheight, while onthesouth 
eight miles of similar formation rise from two hundred to 
two hundred and fifty feet, and against this the waters madly 
foam and break and dash their spray far up the sides, rend- 
ing and rifting them in every possible manner, or wearing 
out dark chasms and overhanging arches. There results 
from this formation a general slope and exposure to the 
south very favorable to vegetation. Furthermore, the whole 
island is intersected from north to south by a succession of 
ravines or valleys, gradually widening and increasing in 
depth, and forming a natural channel for the small streams 
taking their origin in the springs which everywhere aboimd. 

It has been said that the three primary elements necessary 
to the success of agricultural operations are skilful hus- 



ADDRESSES 175 

bandry, a well-constituted soil and a genial climate. All 
three of these requisites Jersey possesses in the highest 
degree. Though resting on a bed of primary rocks of gran- 
ite, syenite, and schist, absolutely wanting in organic re- 
mains, yet the soil is a rich loam, varying in hghtness with 
the character of the underlying stratum. Even in the bays, 
where the sand driven by the winds has encroached upon 
the soil, the land is so successfully tilled, that St. Clements 
Bay has won for itself the title of the "Garden of Jersey." 
The climate is one of the most equable and mild in the world. 
Rarely does it fall below the freezing point, and there is 
but one instance on record of its reaching 83 degrees. The 
ground seldom freezes more than an inch or two, and the 
slight snows serve to keep off the frost altogether. Winter 
there is none, but the spring is usually cold and late. The 
mean daily range of the thermometer is exceptionally small. 
Taking the average of ten years, it is found to be but 8.1 de- 
grees. The days of summer are not very hot, but the nights 
are comparatively warm, and there is hardly any chill in the 
night air at any season of the year. There is no recorded 
climate, and probably no climate whatever in north temper- 
ate latitudes, on either side of the Atlantic, that presents so 
small a daily range of the thermometer. Such is the opinion 
of an enthusiastic traveler. 

As a result of this, many kinds of plants and shrubs are 
at least a fortnight earlier than even in the warmer parts 
of England, and the ripening of fruit in the open air during 
July, August and September is invariably some days ear- 
lier than at Greenwich, although the summer is cooler than 
at that place. Another striking peculiarity, which doubt- 
less has its effect upon vegetation, is the rainfall. Taking 



176 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

the average of six years, rain is found to fall on one hun- 
dred and fifty days, but it most frequently occurs at night 
or early in the morning, seldom lasting through the day, 
thereby securing the maximum of sunshine. The mean an- 
nual rainfall is about thirty-three inches. Under these 
favorable conditions of temperature and moisture a flora 
that is almost tropical prevails. Fuchsias reaching the pro- 
portions of shrubs, rhododendrons twenty to twenty -five 
feet in height, araucarias, — or monkey -trees, as they are 
popularly designated, — oleanders, yuccas, palms, azaleas, 
and camellias flourish in the open air, while climate and soil 
appear to be particularly suitable for the cultivation of the 
dahlia. Finer specimens I have never seen. The lauresti- 
nus was in bloom in November, and fig trees and oranges 
were everywhere to be seen trained against the south walls 
of enclosures. 

It is a climatic law that in aU places where the mean 
temperature is below 62.6 degrees, the revival of nature in 
spring takes place in that month of which the mean tem- 
perature reaches 42.8 degrees. On the island of Jersey this 
occurs in February, This again is a very important factor 
in the agricultural development of the place, for the early 
spring and the proxunity of the great markets of London 
and Paris enable the inhabitants to dispose of their produce 
at a great profit. It is no uncommon thing for a man to 
pay for a piece of potato land as high a rental as two to 
three hundred dollars an acre, and to sell his crop of four or 
five hundred bushels for $1,000 or $1,100. But this is not 
the end, for immediately after the gathering of the first crop 
the land is freshly manured and a second crop is planted, 
yielding from two-thirds to three-fourths the amoimt of the 



ADDRESSES 177 

first. These results can be secured only by the application 
of large quantities of manure. Barn-yard manure and also 
artificial fertilizers are used; but the main dependence is 
placed upon the vraic or sea- weed. The old legend runs: 
"No vraic, no corn; no corn, no cows; no cows, no bread 
for children's mouths." This is either washed ashore by 
the action of the waves, or, at the period of maturity, is 
separated by bill-hooks or sickles fastened to long poles 
and drawn in by rakes with a head two or three feet wide 
and handles twelve to twenty feet long. The cutting and 
gathering of the vraic is a general hohday, terminating 
usually in a frolic. It is only allowed twice a year: once in 
February, beginning with the first new or full moon and 
lasting five weeks; and again in June, beginning in the 
middle of the month and closing on the 31st of August. 
Whole famUies will frequently unite, and, going to some 
spot previously selected, work hard all day, the men stand- 
ing up to their waists in water, using their unwieldy sickles 
and rakes, and the women and children dragging the prize 
up beyond the reach of the tide. With the coming of night 
the sea-weed is removed in carts, and then all hands, meet- 
ing at the house of some one of their number, spend the 
hours in dancing and singing. During the first four weeks of 
the summer cutting, only the poor, or those having no 
cattle, are allowed to gather this harvest of the sea. That 
cast up by the waves may be taken at all seasons by any per- 
son between the hours of sunrise and eight o'clock at night. 
About sixty thousand loads are gathered annually, valued 
for manurial purposes at about fifty cents per load. It is 
applied either fresh at the rate of ten loads to the acre, or 
in the form of ashes obtained by burning it, a load yielding 



178 



HENRY HILL GOODELL 



about three bushels of ash. There are two species of this 
vraic, the Fueus and the Laminaria, and the following 
analyses will give an idea of their value: — 



ANALYSES OF VEAIC 



Laminaria 
digitata 

(Per cent) 



Fucus 
vesiculosus 

(Per cent) 



Water in the undried weed 

Dry Weed 
Organic matter, per cent . 

Soluble ash 

Insoluble ash 

Composition of Soluble Ash 

Sulphuric acid 

Chlorides of Potash and sodium 

Potash 

Iodine 



82.00 



71.00 



70.11 


80.36 


23.56 


14.08 


6.33 


5.56 


100.00 


100.00 


2.13 


4.17 


21.53| 


11.40 


6.89 


2.04 


0.48 


0.01 



The drift weed belongs to the Laminaria, of which there 
are two varieties, and the cut weed to the Fucus, of which 
there are three. The latter is considered the more valuable, 
perhaps from its containing a larger percentage of organic 
matter. 

The population of Jersey, according to the last census, is 
a httle over 65,000. The area of the island is, as already 
stated, 28,717 acres. Of this, only 19,514 are under cul- 
tivation, so that practically three persons are supported 
to each acre. It may not be iminteresting to note the 
acreage of the different crops, and compare it with the 
amount of produce exported. In 1891, the corn crops 



ADDRESSES 179 

(wheat, barley, oats, rye, beans, and peas) occupied 2,199 
acres, wheat leading with 1,700; green crops, including 
potatoes, turnips, mangolds, cabbages, and vetches, 
7,816, potatoes leading with 7,000; clover and grasses under 
rotation, 5,247; permanent pasture, 4,053; flax, 3; small 
fruits, 158; and uncropped arable land, 38. Horses num- 
bered 2,360; cattle, 12,073; sheep, 305; and pigs, 7,618. 
In that same year there were exported, into England alone, 
2,300 cows and calves, or a little over one-sixth the en- 
tire number; 25 tons of butter; 1,863,165 bushels of po- 
tatoes, an average of 266 bushels to every acre under cul- 
tivation; 86,000 dozen eggs; 74,969 bushels of fruit and 
vegetables, to the value of $400,000; the whole footing up 
to the snug little income of $3,700,000, to be distributed 
among the 2,600 farmers owning or cultivating land. It is 
a noticeable fact that, while the cattle were valued at 
£40,000, the potatoes were placed at £447,134, or eleven 
times that sum. 

The above figures are equally applicable to Guernsey, 
except that there a greater amount of fruit is grown, the 
yearly export of grapes footing up to more than 500 tons. 
Tomatoes are raised in immense quantities for the Lon- 
don market, but no reliable statistics were available. As 
compared with our best varieties, they are very inferior 
in size and quaUty. The vines are trained up against the 
sides of the houses, and continue bearing sometimes more 
than one year. The principal fruits are grapes, apples and 
pears. Jersey cider was at one time so celebrated that the 
agricultural society of the Department of the Lower Seine 
in France sent over a commission to learn the methods of 
manufacture; but the apple trees are now giving way to the 



180 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

potato, though still 30,000 to 40,000 bushels of the fruit 
are exported annually. Climate and soil seem especially 
adapted to the cultivation of pears, of which there are some 
fifty varieties grown, — bergamottes, doyennes, beurres, etc. 
But the most remarkable are the chaumontel, whose fruit 
frequently reaches proportions that are truly wonderful. 
For fear you should think I am drawing on my imagination, 
permit me to quote from official records : — 

"These pears are usually plucked about the 10th of Octo- 
ber, but are not fit for use for several weeks, being in per- 
fection about Christmas. Those weighing sixteen ounces 
are regarded as first-rate, and fetch good prices. Pears of 
this size average in value twenty-five to thirty dollars per 
hundred in the island markets; but as they diminish in size 
and weight the value falls rapidly, the numerous small fruit 
being considered only fit for baking, although in point of 
flavor they are httle inferior. The largest and best grown 
fruit on record was raised at Laporte in Guernsey in 1849. 
It measured six and one-half inches in length, fourteen and 
one-half in girth, and weighed thirty-eight ounces. As a 
group of pears from a single tree, there is perhaps no more 
remarkable instance recorded than one occurring in the sea- 
son of 1861, when, of five fruit obtained from one tree in 
the garden of Mr. Marquand of Bailiff's Cross, Guernsey, 
four of them weighed together seven and one-half pounds. 
It is worthy of remark that in this case the tree, though 
usually prolific, bore only these five fruit. The pears in 
question weighed respectively thirty-two and one-half, 
thirty-three, thirty-one and one-half, and twenty-two 
ounces." 

Equally remarkable among the vegetables are the great 



ADDRESSES 181 

cow cabbages. They reach a height of eight to ten feet. I 
myself measured one that was over eleven, and at the agri- 
cultural rooms at St. Helier there is preserved the record 
of one whose stalk measured sixteen. It takes a year for 
these plants to mature. They are set in November or De- 
cember, about two feet apart, and grow all through the 
following season. The ground is hoed up against them when 
they have reached a certain height, having been previously 
enriched with sea-weed. The leaves are stripped off as 
they become large, being used either for feeding cattle or 
packing butter, and the plants are left to spindle up with a 
small crown at the top. The stalks, which occasionally take 
on tree-like dimensions, are used as palisades for fences or 
poles for beans, but most frequently they are shellacked 
over or varnished and made into canes, selling readily to 
tourists at prices ranging from fifty cents to a couple of 
dollars. 

From what has been said it will be readily conjectured 
that the potato is the chief crop. The greatest care is taken 
in the selection of seed, and they are handled as tenderly as 
the choicest fruit, each tuber being picked up separately and 
placed in an open crate, only one layer deep. In some 
sheltered spot or in a shed these crates are piled up one 
above the other till ready for use. When preparing for 
planting, these are placed in some warm corner and the 
potatoes allowed to sprout, selection being made of those 
shoots which have formed a healthy top and spring from 
a good eye. About twenty-two hundred-weight of seed per 
acre is used, being set about ten inches apart, and in rows 
some twenty-two or three inches wide. Cultivated in the 
open air, they are ready for market in April and May, but 



182 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

with the glass-house system now in vogue they are matured 
much earUer. Previous to the inroads of the potato disease, 
which greatly affected the crops, it was no uncommon thing 
to have a yield of twenty tons to the acre, and the average 
was fourteen; but it has now dropped to ten or eleven. So 
great is the demand for these potatoes that few are retained 
for home use, and large quantities are imported from France 
into Jersey for consumption; but, owing to the early crop 
being exported at a very high price, and the French potatoes 
purchased when the price is lowest, the balance of profit 
remains very largely in favor of the island. 

Some idea of the fertility of the soil may be formed from 
the following figures : Hay averages three and one-half tons 
to the acre; a good return of one-year-old clover is over four 
tons, of two-year-old not more than three and one-quarter; 
wheat averages thirty-five bushels, though in some favored 
fields the yield has reached sixty; mangolds fifty tons, occa- 
sionally reaching seventy; parsnips twenty -five to thirty; 
and carrots thirty. Wheat is sown in January, and that 
is followed by parsnips and potatoes; oats in February, and 
mangolds in April. The rotation of crops is a five-year one, 
namely, turnips, potatoes, wheat, hay, hay. The grass is 
top-dressed in January or February with sea-weed, and that 
is followed later in the season by an application of liquid 
manure. Everything is turned to getting the most possible 
out of the land; and a recent writer, with just a touch of 
sarcasm, remarks: "Jersey still remains a land of open- 
field culture, and yet its inhabitants, who happily have not 
known the blessings of Roman law and landlordism, and 
still live under the common law of Normandy, obtain from 
their land twice as much as the best farmers of England. 



ADDRESSES 183 

Besides their potatoes, they grow plenty of cereals and 
grass for cattle; they have more than one cow to each acre 
of meadows and fields under grass; they export every year, 
besides a large amount of dairy products, some 2,300 milch 
cows; and, on the whole, obtain agricultural produce to the 
amount of $750 to each acre of the surface of the island." 
So much has been said and written of late years respect- 
ing the cattle of Jersey that it would seem almost unneces- 
sary to make mention of them. A few facts, however, in 
regard to their management and care, may not be unin- 
teresting. In round numbers, twelve thousand are scattered 
over the island, but nowhere are large herds to be seen. 
Bimches of two or three, at most five or six, are found on the 
different farms, rarely more. This is easily accounted for by 
the small holdings of the farmers, the 19,000 acres of arable 
land being distributed among 2,600 owners. Of the entire 
number, according to the returns of 1891, 6,700 were cows 
and heifers in milk or in calf, 668 were two years and over, 
and 4,600 were under two years. Cows are considered in 
their prime at six and continue good until ten. After that 
they deteriorate rapidly. The first calf is usually dropped 
when the animal is two or under, and this has been offered 
as a reason for the small size of the breed. Cattle are al- 
lowed to remain out from May to October. After that they 
are housed at night, being driven in at four and let out at 
nine the following day. They are fed morning and evening, 
their ration being the same, three-fourths bushel of roots 
and a little hay, and are milked three times a day during 
the summer. When out at pasture they are never allowed 
to roam, but are close tethered by a rope about four yards 
in length. Three times a day the stake to which the tether 



184 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

is attached is moved eighteen inches on a hne parallel to the 
side of the field. In this manner the most economical use is 
made of the pasturage, and every blade of grass is cropped 
close. The whole care of the cattle devolves upon the women, 
who make great pets of them. As a result, they become 
singularly gentle and docile. 

Since 1789, when a very stringent law was passed, the 
breed has been kept absolutely pure, a fine of one thousand 
dollars being imposed for every head of foreign cattle intro- 
duced, besides confiscation of cattle and boat, the cattle 
confiscated being killed on the spot, and the meat distributed 
sold for the benefit of the poor of the parish where it is 
seized. In addition to the above heavy fine imposed on 
the captain, each sailor is liable to a fine of two hundred 
and fifty dollars, or in lieu thereof to six months' imprison- 
ment. Up to 1833 no one had thought of improving the 
breed by any system or fixed rule, but on the formation of 
the Royal Jersey Agricultural Society, a scale of points for 
judging cattle was adopted, premiums were offered and the 
following regulations laid down: "Any person withholding 
from the public the service of a prize bull shall forfeit the 
premiums; and all heifers having had premiiuns adjudged 
them shall be kept on the island until they have dropped the 
first calf." These efforts and the increasing demand for the 
stock have led to the improvement of the breed in certain 
definite directions. The following scale of points has been 
adopted by the society : — 

RATIO SCALE OF POINTS FOR BULLS 
Artides Points 

1. Registered pedigree .5 

2. Head fine and tapering, forehead broad 5 

3. Cheek small . 2 



ADDRESSES 185 

4. Throat clean 4 

5. Muzzle dark, encircled by light color, with nostrils high and open 4 

6. Horns small, not thick at the base, crumpled, yellow, tipped with 

black 5 

7. Ears small and thin, and of a deep orange color within . . 5 

8. Eyes full and lively 4 

9. Neck arched, powerful, but not coarse and heavy ... 5 

10. Withers fine, shoulders flat and sloping, chest broad and deep . 4 

11. Barrel-hooped, broad, deep, and well ribbed up ... 5 

12. Back straight from the withers to the setting on of the tail . 5 

13. Back broad across the loins .3 

14. Hips wide apart and fine in the bone 3 

15. Rump long, broad and level 3 

16. Tail fine, reaching the hocks, and hanging at right angles vrith the 

back 3 

17. Hide thin and mellow, covered with fine, soft hair ... 4 

18. Hide of a yellow color, 4 

19. Legs short, straight and fine, with small hoofs .... 4 

20. Arms full and swelling above the knees 3 

21. Hind quarters from the hock to point of rump long, wide apart, 

and well filled up 3 

22. Hind legs squarely placed when viewed from behind, and not to 

cross or sweep in walking ....... 3 

23. Nipples to be squarely placed and wide apart .... 5 

24. Growth 4 

25. General appearance 5 

Perfection 100 

No prize to be awarded to bulls having less than 80 points. Bulls having 
obtained 75 points shall be allowed to be branded. 



RATIO SCALE OF POINTS FOR COWS AND HEIFERS 
Articles Points 

1. Registered pedigree 5 

2. Head small, fine and tapering 3 

3. Cheek small, throat clean 4 

4. Muzzle dark, and encircled by a light color, with nostrils high and 

open 4 



186 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

5. Horns small, not thick at the base, crumpled, yellow, tipped with 

black 5 

6. Ears small and thin, and of a deep orange color within . . 6 

7. Eye full and placid 3 

8. Neck straight, fine, and lightly placed on the shoulders . . 3 

9. Withers fine, shoulders flat and sloping, chest broad and deep . 4 

10. Barrel-hooped, broad and deep, being well ribbed up . .5 

11. Back straight from the withers to the setting on of the tail . 5 

12. Back broad across the loins ....... 3 

13. Hips wide apart and fine in the bone; rump long, broad and 

level 5 

14. Tail fine, reaching the hocks, and hanging at right angles with 

the back 3 

15. Hide thin and mellow, covered with fine, soft hair ... 4 

16. Hide of a yellow color ........ 4 

17. Legs short, straight and fine, with small hoofs .... 3 

18. Arms full and swelling above the knees 3 

19. Hind quarters from the hock to point of rump long, wide apart 

and well filled up, 3 

20. Hind legs squarely placed when viewed from behind, and not to 

cross or sweep in walking 3 

21. Udder large, not fleshy, running well forward, in line with the 

belly, and well up behind 5 

22. Teats moderately large, yellow, of equal size, wide apart and 

squarely placed 5 

23. Milk veins about the udder and abdomen prominent . . 4 

24. Growth 4 

25. General appearance 5 

Perfection 100 

No prize shall be awarded to cows having less than 80 points. 
No prize shall be awarded to heifers having less than 70 points. 
Articles 21 and 23 shall be deducted from the number required for per- 
fection in heifers, as their udder and milk veins cannot be fully developed. 

We have thus far dealt only with open-air cultivation, 
but there is another phase, still more interesting, in which 
everything is grown under cover. Until the glass-houses of 



ADDRESSES 187 

Jersey and Guernsey have been visited, no one can fairly 
appreciate the possibiUties of intensive gardening. Origin- 
ally erected for the purpose of growing grapes, they now 
combine that with the raising of all crops grown in the open 
air. These glass shelters are of the simplest construction, 
in most cases mere frames of glass and wood, sometimes 
heated, but oftener not. But they yield enormously, crop 
after crop, throughout the entire season. Hardly is one out 
of the way than another takes its place. Before the potatoes 
are out of the ground, beet or broccoli is set between the 
rows, etc. The whole island of Guernsey is dotted with 
them: here mere lean-tos against the sides of the buildings, 
there more substantial structures in the fields, or again 
rising tier upon tier up the steep hillsides. The grape crop, 
of which the annual exportation from the island of Guernsey 
is over five hundred tons, valued at some two hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and on which the inhabitants chiefiy relied for 
an income, has now become a side issue, and is entirely 
eclipsed by the immense quantities of potatoes, tomatoes, 
peas, beans, and carrots raised under these shelters. It was 
not my good fortune to visit these glass-houses in the early 
season : but in November, on the island of Jersey, at Goose 
Green, in a house some nine hundred feet long by forty-one 
or two broad, I saw them ploughing down the centre while 
they gathered tomatoes from the vines on either hand, 
and picked the pendent bunches of grapes from the trellis- 
work on the sides. 

No more interesting description of the vegetable houses 
has been written than that by Prince Kropotkin, and you 
will, I am sure, bear with me for a few moments if I quote 
from his recent article on the "Possibilities of Agriculture." 



188 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

"I saw three-fourths of an acre, covered with glass and 
heated for three months m the sprmg, yielding about eight 
tons of tomatoes and about two hundred pounds of beans 
as a first crop in April and May, to be followed by two crops 
more during the summer and autumn. Here one gardener 
was employed, with two assistants; a small amount of coke 
was consumed; and there was a gas engine for watering 
I)urposes, consuming one dollar's worth of gas every month. 
I saw again, in cool greenhouses, pea plants covering the 
walls for a length of a quarter of a mile, which already 
had yielded by the end of April thirty-two hundred pounds 
of exquisite peas, and were yet as full of pods as if not one 
had been taken away. I saw potatoes dug from the soil in 
April to the amount of five bushels to the twenty-one feet 
square, and so on. And yet all that is eclipsed by the 
immense vineries of Mr. Bashford in Jersey. They cover 
thirteen acres, and from the outside these huge glass-houses 
and chimneys look like a factory. But when you enter one 
of the houses, nine hundred feet long and forty-six feet 
wide, and your eye scans that world of green embellished 
by the reddening grapes or tomatoes, you forget the ugli- 
ness of the outside view. As to the results, I cannot better 
characterize them than by quoting what Mr. W. Bear, the 
well-known writer upon English agriculture, wrote after a 
visit to the same establishment; namely, that the money re- 
turns from these thirteen acres ' greatly exceed those of an 
ordinary English farm of thirteen hundred acres.' The last 
year's crops were twenty-five tons of grapes (which are cut 
from May till October, ranging in price at wholesale from 
one dollar a pound to eighteen cents), eighty tons of toma- 
toes, thirty tons of potatoes, six tons of peas, and two tons of 



ADDRESSES 189 

beans, to say nothing of other subsidiary crops. On seeing 
such results one might imagine that all this must cost a 
formidable amount of money; but not so. The cost of Mr. 
Bashford's houses, most excellently well built, is only $2.34 
per square yard (heating pipes not taken into account) ; and 
all the work is done by thirty-six men only; three men to 
each acre of greenhouses seems to be a Guernsey average. 
As for fuel, the consumption amounts to no more than one 
thousand cart-loads of coke and coal. Besides, one can see 
in the Channel Isles all possible gradations, from the well- 
constructed greenhouses just mentioned, to the simple shel- 
ters made out of thin planks and glass, without artificial 
heat, which cost only ten cents per square foot, and never- 
theless allow of having the most surprising crops quite ready 
for sale by the end of April. Altogether, the glass-house is 
no more a luxury. It becomes the kitchen garden of the 
market gardener." 

One of the most noticeable features of these islands is the 
appearance of thrift everywhere discernible. Everything 
speaks of ease and prosperity; paupers there are none. The 
poor are rarely seen. Roadside, garden, and house alike 
betoken comfort and sufficiency. Not only are the out- 
skirts of the town filled with substantial buildings, but the 
homes of the farmers are solid granite structures, it may be 
with cement floor instead of boards, the roofs thatched or 
tiled, showing red against the dark, rich background of foli- 
age, but all comfortably, neatly furnished, the windows cur- 
tained with cambric or lace, while outside they are bowered 
m roses, jasmines, or myrtles. There is a feeling of home, of 
ownership, of pride in possession that strikes one at once; 
and who that has once enjoyed the simple, hearty hospitality 



190 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

of those kindly people will ever forget it? The loaf of cake 
profifered by the good housewife, with a half apology perhaps 
for its not being as light as it ought to be; the "jersey 
wonder" (a species of doughnut) melting away in the 
mouth before one fairly knows it is there; the pitcher of 
cider or bottle of wine, — everything is freely offered, and 
the guest made welcome to the best. The exquisite neatness 
which characterizes the house is just as plainly visible in its 
out-door surroundings. The well-kept walks, the neat, 
orderly barns and sheds, the gardens with their flowers and 
fruit, and, above all, the trim, cleanly roads, all bespeak the 
same care and thrift. Everything is turned to account; the 
droppings of the horses and cattle along the roads are care- 
fully swept up and placed on the manure heap, the twigs 
broken by the gales are picked up and put away for fuel, 
and the leaves falling from the trees are gathered together 
and carried away to enrich the land. Nothing is lost, and 
the waste, except in questions of labor, is reduced to a 
minimum. But the tools are heavy and clumsy, and to 
this day most of the farmers work their ground with a 
plough that has a wooden mould-board with an iron point, 
the horses being hitched tandem. 

The roads and lanes deserve special mention. The former 
are well built, and as a general thing follow the windings of 
the valleys, while branching from them in every direction 
are an infinity of lanes, so narrow that at intervals bays are 
constructed to allow teams to pass each other. No weeds 
along the margins are to be seen, for both road and lane are 
macadamized and bordered, sometimes by stone walls or 
well-trimmed hedges, but oftener by earth-banks, upon or 
beside which are rows of trees. These high, earthen banks, 



ADDRESSES 191 

taking the place of fences, with trees growing on top, and 
covered all over with the greenest and most luxuriant of 
ivies, give to the lanes the appearance of trenches cut in the 
soil, and this effect is heightened by the arching of the trees 
overhead and the interlacing of their branches, which even 
in midday cast a shade that is almost twilight; and for 
miles you ride along through these leafy bowers, sheltered 
from the sun, protected from the wind, listening to the song 
of birds, till at last the vista opens, and suddenly you see 
the waves rolling madly in, and catch the thunders of the 
surf upon the granite cliffs. 

The question is often asked. To what do the Channel 
Islands owe their prosperity. Given an equable climate, a 
fertile but not rich soil, and a skilful husbandry, and you 
have the three prime requisites of success. That is true as 
far as it goes, but there is still a factor wanting to make the 
explanation complete. Other writers have placed it in the 
possession of a race of cattle popular throughout the world, 
a climate which is perfection, and a ready market almost at 
their very door. To these combined, I would add, "A 
diffused property, a diffused capital, and a diffused intelli- 
gence." The 19,000 acres of arable land of Jersey are 
divided among 2,600 farmers; only six have farms of one 
hundred acres; some fifty or more own twenty acres; 
but the great majority have small holdings from one-half 
acre to five or six. Land does not often change hands. If 
inherited, it cannot be devised by will, but must follow the 
line of succession, the law requiring that at death every 
child shall receive a part, the oldest son having the house 
in addition. The land laws thus discourage aggregation of 
property, and favor its distribution among the members of 



192 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

the family. Every man is at the same time a land-owner, a 
capitalist and a laborer. To this "dififusion of property," 
and to the miiversal thrift and industry naturally following 
such diffusion, I attribute the general prosperity of the 
people. It is natural that a man owning his little piece of 
land should improve it to the utmost, and make it yield the 
largest income possible. The man occupying temporarily 
another's land will not lay out upon it any more than he can 
possibly help. There results, then, from these small hold- 
ings, an intense cultivation not possible on large estates. 

How different the case is in England may be seen from 
the following figures : of the 36,000,000 acres comprising 
England and Wales, 4,500 persons own 20,000,000; 288 
hold over 5,000,000; 52 hold over 9,000 acres apiece; 204 
hold over 5,000 and 2,432 hold over 1,000. More than one- 
half is owned by private individuals, holding 1,000 acres 
and upward. In Scotland this aggregation of land by the 
few is still more striking. Of its 19,000,000 acres, nine- 
tenths are held by less than 1,700 persons, and one-half of 
the whole of its area is held by 70 persons. The whole num- 
ber of land-owners is 131,530, but of these 111,658 own 
less than an acre apiece. The largest estate is held by the 
Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, and amounts to 1,326,- 
000 acres. With such a distribution of property, and with a 
poor law costing thirty-five million dollars annually, what 
outlook is there for the English fanner .f* What hope of ever 
acquiring possession of the little plot of land on which he 
works and spends his days, or what motive to induce him to 
improve property he cannot leave to his children .f* A recent 
writer puts it in an nutshell when he says: "In England 



ADDRESSES 193 

the agricultural laborers, with the lands about them all 
taken up and so unsalable, and with a poor law to provide 
for them under all the calamities of life, whether brought 
about by mishap or by their own wilful vice, have but little 
motive, even if they had the opportunity, for saving." 



RKINUNISCENCES OF THE ORIENT 

"Many a Iravcllor will remember, no doubt, n sudden 
lliiill on ;nvjiktMiin<;' siuhUMily in llie midst of liis first night 
on Eastern soil — Avaking as it were from dream into tlream. 
For there eanie a voiee, solitary, sweet, sonorous, floating 
frouj on high through the moonlight stillness, the voice of 
the blind Muez/.een, singing the Ulah or first call to i)rnyer. 
And at I ho s»)und, many a white llgure would move silently 
on the low roofs, and not merely, like the palms and cy- 
presses around, bow his head, but ])rostrate, and bend his 
knees. And the sounds went and came: *(uh1 is good! 
God is great! Prayer is better than sleep! There is no 
God, but Gt)d, and INTahomet is his prophet! La elah il 
Allah! Mahomet ra(,H>ul Allah! Tie giveth life and he 
dielh not! () thou bountiful! Thy merey ceaseth not! 
My sins are great! (ireater is thy mercy! 1 extol thy 
perfect ii)ns!' \\n\ then the cry woidd be taken up and 
prolonged by other INluezzeens, and from the north and 
the so\ith, the east and the west, came floating on the 
morning stillness this pioiis invitation to prayer, — this 
proclamation to all the world of the embodiment of the 
Moslem creed: 'There is no God, but (uhI, ami INlahomet 
is his ]>rophcl."' 

Who that has ever been in the East can for an instant 
lose the impression of that first moment, so vividly por- 
trayed in the above sketch? It is perhaps the most charac- 
teristic fcatmeof Eastern life.and one that is i-epeated daily, 



AI)l)Rl<:SSKS 105 

again uiul ugjiiii, in every Turkish city. A creed so simple 
and yet so bold in its utterance! Its very strength lies in its 
simplicity; and the millions who have lived and died in the 
profession of its faith have carried its tenets iriuniphantly 
from the shores of the Atlantic to the great wall of China 
and the heart of fnrtlier India. 

Reminiscences of the East: of the land of the fig-tree and 
olive, the vine and the pomegranate, the myrtle and rose, 
the nmsk and the ottar of Arahy the Blest, and the delicious 
notes of nightingales warhling as though intoxicated with 
their own sweet song. What images rise n]) l)cfore me and 
return to my memory! Out of all this luxuriance, what 
shall I select as my theme? 

Shall I Icll you of that worulrous city, "alone of all the 
cities of the world, standing on two continents," massed on 
its seven hills, and rising tier on tier of swelling domes and 
burnished minarets, each one a centre of refulgent light, yet 
so toned down and softened under th(» light of a. sky known 
in noothcr clime than in the East, so circled round by masses 
of dark verdure which cluster round the sacred edifices, that 
the eye finds no inharmonious i)oint, but wanders with re- 
curring delight over the whole? 

Or shall I tell you of the great war between the crescent 
and the cross, when, lying almost within sound of the great 
guns whose iron hail was crashing ui)on the doomed city of 
Sevastopol, we watched the transports sailing by, carrying 
reinforcements to the allied troops or bringing to the city 
the thousands of unhappy wretches, gashed and maimed, 
battered out of the semblance of humanity, or who, stricken 
down by the insidious attack of disease, had been brought 
there to linger a while and die? 



I!K> IIICNIIY HILL (iOODKLL 

Or, oiico more, .sliall 1 tell you of llio luiiil ilsclf, iLs 
jn-odiiclH Hiul ivHoiircos, iho people and (heir ways, their 
lives 1111(1 occMparioiis, llieir various uielluxls of gainiug 
Ihelr daily bread? 

It lias seemed lo me llial perhaps I his last Mas llie more 
appi(>i>rinle. And yet I aliii(»sl. despair of giving you an 
adequate idea of a eounlry and a people Avhere everything 
is done in a nuinner so exactly o])posi I e to our own. The 
distinction they make between the relij^ious and the uuiral 
eharacirr is \ cry singular. With us there can he no religion 
without morality; hut with them the religious has nothing 
lo do with tlie moral <-liaracter. The pirate commit ting 
murder «)ii llu> high seas, and taken n^d-liaiided, ri'fustvs to 
eat meat on Friday and tlius imperil liis soul.eviMi while his 
hands ar(> ^■el wet with his brother's blood. The robber 
stripes you lo the skin, lakes everything you j)ossess, lunl- 
treats and tliit>aleiis you with tlealli, and then calmly 
ejaculates as \\v leaves you, * May (Jod sa\'e you, u»y lauib, 
if in danger! I give you into His keeping." 

No one is ever sup|)oscd to be the less covetous, the less 
a cheat, a. gambler, a liar, adefrautler, a robber, a nuu'derer, 
because he prays. Nothing is further from his own llunights 
or the thoughts of the bystanders, than that his prayers 
should exert any transforming inlluence upon his own char- 
acter. And why should tlu\v? l*'or when tli(\v have busi- 
ness to transact with their neighbors on temporal matters, 
they use a language which all can luulerstand, but whenever 
they have any business with their Maker abotit I heir eternal 
interests, it is always tK)ue in a language they do not under- 
stand. OutAvardly i)ious and sincere, inwardly they are 
whited sepulchres and full of dead men's bones. The 



ADDiiKSSES 197 

travolcr in llio Iilf^liWiiy, Llie uitisiui in liis slio]), llio nicr- 
chanL la Lhe biizuur, llie louiigor in llio ciilVs when Llio hour 
lor prayer arrives, hastens to spread his little carpet on the 
grovuul and goes through ilio ro(iniro(l fornmia. Hut lu^ is 
keenly ulivc all the lime to wliatt^vcr is going on ahout him, 
and when his pious <'ju<iiIatioiis are ended, will he I'ound to 
have lost not un iota of anything that may have been said 
din-ing his Icniponiry (it of piety. If a, prolV'Ssional story- 
teller has been anuising the erowd with sonu^ entertaining 
tale while he was praying, he will be found not to have lost 
the point of the story, or the i)ith of any joke. 

T\w. writer of tlu^ artiek; entitled "IJaron Uirseh's Rail- 
way in Turkey," tells the following story: A i)easant one 
day sent in all haste for n,n Anuuiean missionary to come 
and pray for him. Not a littk^ snrprised at the nnusuul r(>- 
quest, the missionary went, and the ]jeasant remarked, 
"Your prayers arc more efficacious than those of our 
priests." The missionary was somewhat surprised at this, 
and after modestly murmuring something concerning faith, 
was preparing to comply with the re(|iiest, when tlui man 
continued, '* 1 hav(! taken a lieket in the Vienmi lottery. 
If I win Ihntngh yonr prayers, yon shall ha,V(i oncvhalf." 

It was a|)parently a perfectly natural thing, this copart- 
nership of earth and heaven, and the peasant could see no 
impropriety in invoking the prayc^rs of those he considennl 
more i)otent than he. 1 1(^ |>nt up the money, the missionary 
furnished the prayiMS, and they went divvys on th<i result. 
What harm? 

But to tnrn from lhe moral side to lhe customs of every- 
day life. The barber, for c.\amj>Ie, i>ushes the razor from 
him; ours draws it to him. The caq)cnter draws the saw 



198 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

towards him, for all the teeth are set in; ours does the re- 
verse, for the teeth are set out. The mason sits while he lays 
and trims his stone, ours stands. The scribe writes from 
right to left, usually upon his hand or knee; ours from left to 
right, upon the table or desk. Even in the matter of build- 
ing a house, the same law prevails. We begin at the bottom 
and finish at the top; the Turks begin at the top, and fre- 
quently the upper rooms are entirely finished and habit- 
able, while all below is a mere framework like a lantern. 

The Oriental uses a pipe so long that he cannot hold a 
coal to the bowl and at the same time draw a whiff of to- 
bacco smoke from the other end. We use one so short that 
the scent of burned hair too often mingles with that of the 
fragrant weed. We poUsh our boots with elaborate care; 
but these people, whose religion, perhaps, will not allow 
them to use brushes made from the bristles of the unclean 
beast, wipe up their shoes with their hands, and then put 
on the last finishing touches with their handkerchiefs, or 
the slack of those wonderful things denominated Turkish 
trousers. Burnaby, in his "On Horseback through Asia 
Minor," quotes a missionary as saying: "The Turks about 
here are just the bottom-side-upwardest, and the top-side- 
downwardest, the back-side-forwardest, and the forward- 
side-backwardest people I have ever seen. Why, they call 
a compass which points to the north, 'queblen,' or south, 
just for the sake of contradiction; and they have to change 
their watches every twenty -four hours, because they count 
their time from after sunset, instead of reckoning up the day 
like a Christian." One more striking point of difference, and 
we have done. The Turks through long ages led a roving, 
wandering life in the immense plains of northern and cen- 



ADDRESSES 199 

tral Asia. Rising from the position of slave and subject to 
that of master, they gradually fought their way down to 
the shores of the Mediterranean and occupied the entire 
territory. But the inherited instincts of so many genera- 
tions have never been completely laid aside. As in their 
warlike, migratory state, the tent was to them simply a 
sleeping-place to which they retired for the night, so the 
house has been to them ever since. Home, in our sense of the 
word, with all its beautiful associations, has no answering 
equivalent in their mind, and, in fact, there is no word in 
their language which can convey such an idea. 

To add to the difficulty of giving any adequate idea of the 
people of Turkey, is the fact that they do not form a single 
race, amalgamated and blended into one, though made up 
of different race-elements, but are composed of Turks, Jews, 
Greeks, Armenians, wild tribes of Koords, Turcomans, 
Kuzel Bash, and the Bulgarian, Croatian, and Slavonian 
tribes of the Danubian principalities, each retaining its dis- 
tinct nationality, its own religious rites, and its own peculiar 
customs and ways. Of the population of eight millions in 
round numbers in European Turkey, the Turks nimaber 
about 3,600,000, and the rest are Christian and Jews. In 
Asiatic Turkey the proportion is about the same. Of these, 
the Greeks and the Jews are the tradesmen; the Armenians 
the artizans and bankers; the Bulgarians and Croats are 
agricultural in their tastes, while the Koords and Turco- 
mans live largely by plunder and by the produce of their" 
herds. In such an assemblage of races you would naturally 
expect to find great differences; and yet, after all, certain 
distinct features will be found peculiar to all, and certain 
customs that are common to all. 



200 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

As a rule, the Turk will be found to be honest and truth- 
ful, aud living uj) to the conunand laid do\^^^ by Mahomet 
in the earlier days of his inspiration : " When thou hast given 
thy word, stand fast by it, and let the words of thy mouth 
be even as thy written agreement." Of the other races we 
cannot say as much. The Jews, as in all ages, are the 
money-getters, and live and thrive in their quarters, as in 
the Ghetto of Rome, in a squalor and filth that would 
quickly exlerminate any other race. The Greeks are shrewd 
and enterprising, but the characterization of the Cretans by 
St. Paul is no inapt description of their character: "The 
Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies." Their 
own comitryman, Euripides, even before the time of the 
apostle, WTote: "Greece never had the least s])ark of hon- 
esty"; and Lord Byron, twenty centin-ies iifter, one of the 
most enthusiastic in their cause, exclaims: "I am of St. 
Paid's opinion, that there is no difference between Jews and 
Greeks — the character of both being equally vile." 

The Armenians, on the other hand, are a purer, simpler 
race, retaining much of that individual nationality which 
made them formidable in the days of the Romans. But 
contact with the outer world — with the foreigners pouring 
into Tm-key — is changing their character for the worse. 
It need hardly be said that the farther you go from the capi- 
tal aiid the large cities, the simpler and more innocent the 
lives of tlie people. 

In nothing is this difference of nationality so strikingly 
manifested as in the cemeteries. The Turks plant theirs 
with the cypress, and at the head of a grave where a man is 
buried, a stone is erected crowned with a turban, or, in more 
recent times, with the national emblem — the fez. At the 



ADDRESSES 201 

foot of the grave a plainer stone marks the resting-place of 
the woman. The turban is absent, and in its place the top 
of the stone is rounded or pointed, while a running vine is 
worked around the outer edge. The inscription is very 
simple — only the name of the family of the deceased, and 
a recommendation of his soul to the only living and true 
God. A beaulifid custom prevails, both among the Turks 
and the Christian population, of hollowing out two small 
cavities in the tablet covering the grave itself, which are 
kept filled with seeds and fresh water to attract the birds to 
come and !>uild their nests near by and sing their songs over 
the graves of the departed. 

The cemeteries of the Jews are in keeping with their daily 
life. As their object is so to live as not to attract attention 
and thus call down upon themselves the persecution of their 
neighbors, so the resting-places of their dead display the 
same neglect and want of care. Nothing drearier or more 
desolate can be imagined. Not a tree or shrub to relieve the 
melancholy waste. Nothing but the barren hillsides, strewn 
for miles around witli gray slabs, lying in the most terrible 
confusion. 

Not so the Greeks and Armenians. Choosing some beau- 
tiful site, as in the '* Grand Champ des Morts " at Conslan- 
tinople, overlooking the Bosphorus and the Marmora, they 
plant the stately palm or the graceful terebinthus [turpen- 
tine], erect a coffee-house, and make it a fashionable 
resort. Its cool and airy situation, its agreeable shade and 
the convenience of comfortable seats afforded by the tomb- 
stones, make it a pleasant promenade. Here, on the flat 
tablets, the elders mark out a rough board and play games 
of chance or checkers, or perchance discuss the merits of 



202 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

their ancestors sleeping quietly beneath. Here lovers wan- 
der arm in arm and whisper their fond nothings, undis- 
turbed by ghosts of former days. And here the gallants, as 
they sip their wine, order so many Roman candles burnt in 
honor of their ladies. 

The occupation of the deceased is always portrayed 
upon his tombstone : an adze or saw representing a carpen- 
ter; a lancet, a barber; an anvil, a blacksmith; an inkstand, 
a scribe or lawyer; and if, perchance, his end has been 
hastened by violence, the manner of his "taking off" is 
faithfully portrayed. Here you may see a representation 
of the deceased upon his knees, holding his head in his 
hands, while jets of blood spout from his neck in stiff curves, 
like those issuing from a beer bottle on a tavern sign. There 
you may see the fatal bowstring adjusted about the neck 
as he awaits the tightening of the cord. These representa- 
tions carry with them no associations of infamy or crime. 
They are but the heraldic quarterings to be found among 
the aristocracy of other nations, and if they had a name 
would be called the "scimetar pendant, or the bowstring 
displayed in a field azure." Only, instead of being blazoned 
upon the carriages of the living, they are placed upon the 
tombstones of the dead; for they signify that the wealth 
of the deceased was sufficient to excite the avarice of the 
reigning power. "To die, then, by the sword or bowstring, 
implies the possession of wealth, and the surviving relatives 
glorify themselves in perpetuating this record of financial 
standing and consideration." 

To the observant traveler in the East, one of its most 
noticeable features is the absence of farm life among its in- 
habitants. Between village and village you rarely meet 



ADDRESSES 203 

with isolated farm-houses or cultivated areas. You pass 
directly from the town or hamlet, with its surrounding 
gardens and arable land, into a wild, unbroken territory, in- 
fested only by wild beasts and lawless men. From motives 
of security, the people all live together in the villages ; the 
farmer going to his farm, two or three miles away, every 
morning, and quitting work an hour before sundown, to re- 
turn to his distant family. Even in the neighborhood of 
large cities you find this to be the case; and within fifteen 
miles of Constantinople itself, with its million or more of 
population, could still be shot, only a few years ago, wild 
boars and wolves in the dense forests surrounding the Bents 
of Belgrade. 

Another very noticeable fact is the utter disregard of fer- 
tilizers. Great heaps of manure accumulate in the sheep- 
folds, the poultry yards and horse-stables, which are allowed 
to waste from lack of knowledge of their value. It is true 
that on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, where are 
grown the celebrated melons, three of which make a camel's 
load of, say, six hundred pounds, a hole is scooped in the 
sand, a handful of hen or pigeon manure thrown in, the seed 
planted, and Nature left to do the rest. But this is the ex- 
ception to the rule. Nor should we blame these people too 
severely, when we have such bright and shining examples of 
the same pernicious practice in this country. In California, 
in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, the manure is hauled, not 
to the field, but to the public highways, where it is care- 
fully spread to keep down the dust; and in Canada the farm- 
ers were reported only this last smnmer as dumping it by 
the cart-load into the rivers. 

The droppings of the cow, on the other hand, are care- 



204 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

fully preserved, worked up "with coarse straw and stubble, 
and dried for winter fuel; for over large areas the woods 
have entirely disappeared, and the poor people have no 
other resource. The preparation of the winter's supply is 
especially the duty of the women, and, to quote the words 
of the veteran missionary Van Lennep : " We have watched 
them collecting the manure from the track which the cattle 
follow in going to pasture in the morning, shaping it into 
round cakes, six or eight inches in diameter, by handling it 
as they would a lump of dough, and with a skilful twist of 
their hand suddenly sticking it on the walls of their houses 
to dry in the sun. They seem to enter upon this duty as a 
matter of course, and conduct it with an artistic dexterity 
which proves that it is one of the accomplishments of the 
good housewife much to be desired." 

As to the distribution of the arable land, we may make 
the general division into villages and " Chifliks," or farms of 
considerable extent. The common farmers live in villages 
for safety. They may own the land around them in common, 
but generally each man has his own. The commune system 
is mainly in European Turkey, and is the ancient system of 
the Slavic race. 

The "Chifliks," or large farms, are usually owned by 
Turks, and vary in size from several hundred to as many 
thousand acres. They constitute a village in themselves: 
the landed proprietor in the centre, usually on an elevated 
bit of ground, and the huts of his dependents clustered 
around and below. It is only the old feudal system revived: 
the lord in his castle, and the hovels of his humble retainers 
grouped about the walls. These large estates are devoted 
principally to grazing; but if there is good wheat land you 



ADDRESSES 205 

may see immense fields of grain, from which a good yield is 
considered nine to ten bushels for one of sowing. The crops 
are never measm-ed by the acre, and the above yield would 
probably be not over twenty bushels to the acre. 

The threshing floor and its implements and operations 
would interest an American farmer in the very highest de- 
gree. Frequently a whole village will unite in constructing 
one for common use. A description of such an one from 
Hamlin's "Among the Turks" may not be uninteresting: 
" I examined one that was about one thousand feet in length, 
and, say, one-third of that in breadth. It was made by 
hauling on to it hundreds of loads of clay and coarse gravel. 
The whole was made into mortar, and spread some five or 
six inches deep on a level, well-prepared surface. It was 
then tamped every day by a force of men, that went all over 
it twice a day, until it became too dry and solid for further 
work. It is now artificial stone. Its inclination from a level 
is just enough to keep it clear of water. With occasional 
repairs, it lasts for generations. About three-fourths of 
this floor is given to threshing, the rest to winnowing. The 
grain from the field is spread six or eight inches deep over 
the floor, and then the whole animal force of the village is 
turned in upon it, — horses, donkeys, mules, horned cattle, 
with carts and drags, or with nothing but the feet." 

But the most effective, the finishing-off instrument, is 
doubtless that referred to by the Prophet Isaiah (xli, 15- 
16), where he says: "Behold, I will make thee a new sharp 
threshing instrument having teeth." And this having teeth is 
what I desire especially to bring to your attention. In ap- 
pearance it looks very much on the upper side like a com- 
mon stone drag or boat. It is of plank, about three inches 



206 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

thick, of the toughest wood, and studded on the under side 
with sharp flints. The edges of these flints, after being 
driven into the socket chiseled out for them, are trimmed 
sharp; and thus completed it makes a most savage-looking 
implement. Seated on this, with a long pole to prevent 
the bundles from riding up over the bow, the driver urges 
on his bullocks. As it goes round and round the area, it cuts 
and bruises the straw fine, and this, with the chaff, takes the 
place of hay for cattle-feed in the East. The threshing 
process over, there are two raking operations : one to clear 
off the coarse straw not good for food; this is piled up as 
worthless chaff to be burned. Then follows a skillful raking 
off of the finer straw without taking up the wheat. After 
being passed through sieves, which let the wheat and chaff 
pass through but retain the coarser stuff, it is ready for 
the winnowing. This is accomplished by tossing the wheat 
high into the air, from shovels made of beech, with long, 
elastic handles, to allow the breeze to carry off the lighter 
particles. Two more sif tings, in sieves of different-sized 
meshes, complete the operation. 

The wheat thus cleaned looks well, but oh, the labor! 
Thousands and thousands of bushels are injured or destroyed 
annually by the rains before the threshing is over; for at 
best, even with several threshing-floors, it will take a num- 
ber of weeks for all in the village to have their turn. Efforts 
have been made from time to time to introduce more per- 
fect machines, but the attempt has always been viewed 
with distrust by the natives, and dark hints have been 
mysteriously circulated of the agency of the Evil One. We 
all remember the story of the opposition to the penny post 
in London, and how it was denounced by the long-headed 



ADDRESSES 207 

ones as an "insidious Popish contrivance." History only 
repeats itself; and it is this same conservative spirit that 
Sir Walter Scott satirizes in his "Antiquary," when he puts 
into the mouth of Mause Headrigg the following objections 
to winnowing machines: "It is a new-fangled machine for 
freeing the corn frae the chaff, thus impiously thwarting 
the will o' divine Providence, by raising wind for your 
leddyship's use by human art, instead of soliciting it by 
prayer, or patiently waiting for whatever dispensation 
of wind Providence was pleased to send upon the shieling 
hill." 

The other implements of husbandry are very simple and 
primitive. The ox-yoke is made of two straight pieces, one 
above, the other below the neck, the top piece alone being 
hollowed. Two straight pins serve instead of the yoke to 
inclose the neck, a strong trunnel in the middle taking the 
place of staple and ring. 

The plough is absurdly ridiculous. Take a pole about 
ten feet long, four or five inches in diameter at the butt; 
and by mortise and tenon unite this at a slightly acute angle 
to another piece of about equal size, sharpened and shod 
with iron to plough the earth, and variously provided with 
some sort of a handle for the ploughman's hand, and you 
have an Oriental plough. It does not turn a furrow, it 
simply scratches the earth to the depth of four or five inches, 
and then the ground must be cross-ploughed in order to 
secure anything like an adequate preparation for the sowing. 
European ploughs, to which several pairs of buffaloes were 
attached, have been introduced at various times, but were 
soon given up on account of the difficulty of finding animals 
strong enough to draw them. The hope of success lies in 



208 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

the improvement of the breed, but there is something be- 
yond this, for the best breeds introduced soon degenerate 
from lack of nourishment. The country must be better 
governed, property made more secure, before farmers will 
find it to their advantage to give their cattle more than 
the scanty grass they can pick up here and there on the 
parched hillsides. The improvement of implements will fol- 
low as a matter of course. The same thing is true of the 
ordinary horses: barley and straw alone, and the treatment 
received through many generations, have produced the 
small, wiry, enduring hack of Asia Minor, as far removed 
from the lithe form and airy grace of the Arab steed as 
light is from darkness. 

The spade is triangular in shape, with a straight handle, 
longer than a man is tall. A few inches above the blade, a 
piece of wood is mortised in, upon which the foot is set, to 
force the blade deep into the earth. The length of the 
handle enables the laborer to lay his whole weight upon the 
extremity, and afterwards use it as a lever in order to raise 
a large quantity of soil, which he merely turns over. " Shal- 
low ploughing but deep spading seem then to be the two 
chief rules of Oriental agriculture." 

The hoe has a broad blade, not flat, but slightly concave, 
the handle very short, compelling the laborer to crouch 
to his work. The sickle is about the same form as our own. 
The scythe shorter, heavier, clumsier, the snath nearly 
straight, with but one handle, the left hand grasping the 
snath itself. The blade has no curve worth mentioning. 
Fortunately for the back of the laborer, hay is in so httle de- 
mand that the scythe is practically used only in the cradle, 
and that not by Turks, but almost exclusively by the Bui- 



ADDRESSES 209 

garians. As you pass by the great wheat fields you will see 
men and women with their sickles slowly and laboriously 
reaping the golden harvest. Ask them whether they could 
not do the work much more rapidly and easily with the 
cradle, and they will answer, "Doubtless." Ask them why 
they do not use it, they will reply, " Good Lord ! it is not 
our custom." And that is the end of all controversy with 
an Oriental. To change the custom of his fathers is as 
impious an act as to defile the bones of his ancestors or 
curse his grandmother. 

One is sometimes in despair of any progress in the East- 
ern world. The beginning must be made at the root. Edu- 
cate the youth, and they are as ready for improvement as 
any people. In some places on the rich lands of the Danube, 
modern implements of harvesting have been introduced, 
and the produce doubled, because the farmer is no longer 
afraid of sowing more than he can gather. The women do a 
great deal of work in the fields, and may be seen laboring 
side by side with the men. The position occupied by them 
may be fairly well illustrated by the following story: A 
gentleman riding one day in the country overtook a man 
who had laden his wife with a heavy bundle of sticks. He 
remonstrated with him, saying, "My good man, it is too 
bad that you should load your wife down in this way. 
What she is carrying is a mule's burden." — "Yes, your 
excellency," the man replied, "what you say is true. It is 
a mule's burden. But then you see Providence has not sup- 
plied us with mules, and he has supplied us with women." 

It is the same all through the East. Sir Thomas Munro, in 
his "Travels to the City of the Caliphs," relates as a reason 
why an Indian should be exempt from paying his tax that 



210 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

he pleaded the loss of his wife, who "did as much work as 
two bullocks." 

Stuart Woods, in a recent number of the "Quarterly Jour- 
nal of Economics," says: "The agricultural processes of dif- 
ferent countries are among the surest indications of the 
condition of the laboring population. In Germany it is a 
common sight to see a cart drawn by a woman and a dog. 
Where labor is dearer and money more plenty, or the 
people a little easier, a horse releases both alike from their 
unnatural task. In the United States, where labor is dear, 
costly agricultural machinery is extensively used in spite of 
the smallness of the farms. It is much used in England also, 
because there the farms are large; and wages, although lower 
than in the United States, still far exceed those of other 
countries. In Russia, on the other hand, in Turkey and in 
Asiatic countries, we find the rudest tools; baskets are used 
instead of wheelbarrows, wooden ploughs instead of iron 
ones; and gangs of spade-men replace both the ploughs and 
the beasts which draw them. A part of this is no doubt due 
to sheer stupidity, but much is also due to the price of labor 
and the rates of interest." 

The products of the soil are as various as the climate and 
geological character of the country. Fruits are abun- 
dant, of excellent quality, and extensively used by the whole 
population. Grapes are delicious, and within reach of the 
poorest, selling at the rate of two pounds and three-fourths 
for two or three cents. Apples, apricots, peaches, cherries, 
and plums have their localities of abundant growth, but no 
attention is paid to obtaining the best kinds, or improving 
those already possessed.^ 

1 I am largely indebted to 'H.a.mlm's Agriculture of the East for my facta. 



ADDRESSES 211 

Of grapes, whoever has once partaken of the famous 
chaoush from the Bithynian side of the Bosphorus, will 
forever eschew all others : thin-skinned, small-seeded, fine- 
pulped, — a dream, a delight, — something to be talked 
about, never to find equaled. The vineyards of the Chris- 
tians and the Moslems differ in one very important particu- 
lar. The former cultivate those kinds suitable for making 
wdnes; the latter, those that are best for food. While the one 
are making spirits, the others are preparing that grape- 
molasses called pekmez, which is extensively used. In it, 
all manner of fruits are stewed Ci- boiled, and the preserves 
laid aside for winter use. With it, savory dishes of quinces 
and meat, or chestnuts and meat, are prepared, much re- 
lished by the poor. 

The olive is grown over a very wide area, especially in 
Asiatic Turkey and the Mediterranean islands. It is a uni- 
versal article of food. Give an Oriental bread and black 
olives for a lunch, and he is happy. Add to this, olive oil to 
flavor his stewed beans, his clam and rice, and his salads, 
and he is happier. Beyond that it is not necessary to go. 
The olive orchard in the flowering time is one of the most 
beautiful sights in the world, — the gnarled and twisted 
trunks hoar with age; the short, oblate, slightly curled sil- 
very leaves ; the branches fairly bending beneath the weight 
of the snowy petals, and the ground beneath and around 
white as with flakes of snow. Job says, referring to this 
peculiarity of its shedding its blossoms: "He shall cast off 
his flowers as the olive." Next to the cereals, it is by far 
the most important agricultural product of Turkey. Its 
berry, pickled, forms the chief article of food; the oil, pro- 
duced from its pericarp, seasons most of the dishes, and 



212 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

keeps alive the light that cheers the winter's gloom; its 
wood, close-grained and hard, takes on a beautiful polish 
and is very highly prized; while its bark and leaves, pos- 
sessing certain febrifuge principles, are much sought after 
by the leeches of the country. The tree is slow in reaching 
maturity, but after the fifteenth or sixteenth year it bears on 
indefinitely, and seems never to lose its vitality. There are 
trees in the garden of Gethsemane estimated to be one thou- 
sand years old, still in full sap and vigor. It is of all fruit 
trees the hardiest, for scarcely any amount of mutilation, 
any severity of frost, or even sharp scorching by fire, suf- 
fices to destroy its hfe. "So long as there is a fragment 
remaining, though externally the tree looks as dry as a post, 
yet does it continue to bear its load of oily berries; and for 
twenty generations the owner gathers fruit from the faithful 
old patriarch. This tree also requires but little labor or care 
of any kind, and, if long neglected, will revive again when 
the ground is dug or ploughed, and yield as before. Vine- 
yards forsaken die out almost immediately, and mulberry 
orchards neglected run rapidly to ruin; but not so the olive. 
Though they may not have been attended to for half a cen- 
tury, yet they continue to be a source of income to their 
owners." 

These peculiarities Virgil observed and carefully noted in 
his "Georgics" nearly two thousand years ago: — 

But, on the other hand, no culture needs 

The olive tree at all; not if the knife 

Forthcurved expects, nor clinging hoe, when once 

It in the field is fixed, and bears the breeze. 

To it the earth, its bosom loosened up 

By furrows of the ploughshare's hook-like tooth. 



ADDRESSES 213 

Sufficient moisture gives, and gives the plough 
Returns of weighty fruitage rich and ripe. 

Georgics, II. 

Why, cleave an olive tree's dry stump, and, strange 
And wondrous strange to tell, an olive root 
Will from the dry wood come! 

Frequently a whole village will unite and plant a grove 
in common. Then not even the berries that fall to the 
ground are allowed to be picked till a proclamation is is- 
sued by the head man of the village or the governor of the 
province. A tree yields from ten to fifteen gallons of oil, and 
the profits are about one hundred dollars to the acre. It is 
claimed that the tree bears only every other year; but this 
is due probably to the vicious manner of gathering the fruit, 
— beating the branches with long poles to shake off the 
berries, and, in so doing, bruising and destroying the tender 
buds that are setting for the next year's crop. 

The husks with which the prodigal son would fain have 
filled his belly, and which Scripture says the swine did eat, 
were not after all such very poor fare. Many a repentant 
sinner might go farther and fare worse. They are the fleshy 
pods of the locust tree, a leathery brown when fit to eat, 
from six to eight inches in length, containing a spongy, 
mealy pulp, of a sweet and pleasant taste in its ripened state, 
and in which are imbedded a number of shining brown seeds, 
very hard, and somewhat resembling a split pea. These 
seeds are of no value whatsoever, on account of their bitter 
flavor; but the sweet pulp of the pod, when dry, is exten- 
sively used as an article of food, particularly among the 
laboring classes. In Syria it is ground up into a coarse flour, 
and a species of molasses made, which is used in the prepara- 



214 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

tion of different kinds of sweetmeats. As food for horses it 
is exported in large quantities into the south of Europe. 
Into this country and Great Britain it finds its way, under 
the name of locust beans or St. John's bread, receiving both 
names from the ancient tradition that they are the " locusts " 
which formed the food of John the Baptist in the wilderness. 
The tree is cultivated extensively in all the countries bor- 
dering the shores of the Mediterranean, both for its food- 
producing qualities and its wood, which is hard and sus- 
ceptible of a fine polish. In size and manner of growth it 
resembles an apple tree, but is more bushy and thick-set. 
It yields a prolific harvest, and it is not unusual to see a tree 
bearing over half a ton of green pods. 

One other tree deserves mention, not on account of its 
food-producing qualities, but for its importance in a com- 
mercial point of view. It is the shrub oak, — the Quercus 
wgilops, — which, growing wild on the mountain slopes and 
rugged steeps, where nothing else will grow, gives employ- 
ment to hundreds of men, women, and children, who, in the 
season, go out to gather the acorns. These are brought 
down in sacks to the nearest seaport, whence they are ex- 
ported, thousands of tons annually, under the name of 
"valonia," to be used in the tanneries of Europe. They 
readily command eighty to ninety dollars a ton; and, from 
the seaport towns of Smyrna and the islands adjacent, 
forty thousand tons have been sent to England alone in a 
single year. 

The cereals of the empire do not differ much from ours. 
The exports are barley, maize, and wheat. Rye, oats, and 
millet give good results, and there are various other seeds 
of good native use. Looking only at the soil, climate, in- 



ADDRESSES 215 

dustrial population, and the rivers and coasts of her great 
inland seas, Turkey ought to be our formidable rival in the 
markets of Europe; but her state of paralysis is such that 
nothing is to be apprehended from that quarter. Destruc- 
tive treaties with England and stupid legislation on the part 
of her own government have reduced her to a state of hope- 
less bankruptcy. 

Turkish agriculture and horticulture furnish all that the 
heart could wish in the shape of edible vegetables. All that 
we produce is there produced, with the exception of potatoes, 
which are imported from Europe; squashes of various kinds, 
and measure unlimited; okra, spinach, celery; melons, un- 
rivaled in flavor and size; cucumbers of any length you 
choose. 

The people of the East eat hardly any meat, but live 
almost wholly on vegetables. The same regimen that made 
the three Israelitish captives at the Babylonian court so 
much fairer and fatter than those fed on the king's meat, 
seems to agree remarkably with the people now. Given a 
little rice, some unleavened bread, a few olives, a cucumber 
cut up with garlic and seasoned with oil, and a pound or two 
of grapes or other fruit, and you produce those miracles of 
strength to be found in the Turkish porters, who, adjusting 
the burden to the pack they carry on their backs, walk off 
with a load of from five to seven hundred pounds, and make 
nothing of it. 

Tobacco is grown in many parts of the empire, but it is a 
government monopoly, and the taxes levied upon the un- 
happy cultivators are so burdensome that they are gradu- 
ally being forced to give up the business. The finest tobacco, 
distinguished for its mild character and exquisite flavor, 



216 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

comes from the hill-sides of Latakia, a seaport town of 
Syria. It is a little singular that smoking, introduced into the 
East not earlier than the seventeenth century, should have 
taken such deep root that the Turks and the I*ersians are 
now looked upon as the greatest smokers in the world. Men, 
women, and children, with consummate skill, roll their lit- 
tle cigarettes, — for they are never purchased ready made; 
and the yellow stain on the finger-tips is as characteristic 
a mark as the black on the hand of a printer's devil. 

Coming now to the farm-yard, we find it abundantly pro- 
vided with animal life. In every part of Turkey domestic 
fowls are met with, and the traveler always finds eggs and 
chickens, if nothing more. In European Turkey large flocks 
of geese and turkeys are raised for the Constantinople mar- 
ket, and are driven down from the inland farms, a distance 
even of one hundred and fifty miles. This task is usually 
performed by gypsies; and we have often wondered at the 
unerring j^rccision with which, with their hooked sticks, 
they would suddenly arrest some lunatic goose in full career 
of wings and feet. The hens are transported in crates on 
the backs of horses. 

The Turkish horse is a smaller, hardier animal than ours. 
It is more tractable, less nervous, has a better disposition, 
and rarely runs away. It is broken only to be ridden, and 
not driven ; for, outside of the city of Constantinople, there 
is not a pleasure carriage to be found in the whole empire. 
In the cities all loads are carried on the backs of the porters, 
or, suspended on poles, are carried by two or more of the 
same class. In the country are to be found only the rudest 
kinds of carts, drawn by bullocks or buffaloes, — the wheels 
cut out of a solid piece of wood four or five inches thick; and 



ADDRESSES 217 

as no grease is used, the terrible squeaking and groaning 
that is made, as the carts lumber along, remind one, as has 
been quaintly said, of "all the pandemonium of hell let 
loose." 

The horses of the sultan's stable, and of some of the 
pashas', are magnificent creatures, wholly or in part of Arab 
blood. But the larger proportion of the horses met with 
are of a very inferior breed. The Turkish cavalry is well 
mounted, and the horses are far lighter and smaller than 
those in the English or French service; and during the 
Crimean war there was nothing attracted so much admira- 
tion as the splendid horses of the allies. The sultan, and, 
indeed, the whole Turkish government, jealously guard the 
Arab race of horses, tliat no infidel foreigner may ever pos- 
sess the pure breed. The pure-blooded Arab mare is never 
to be sold or given away to a foreigner, nor can the Moslem 
take her with him outside of the country. It may be doubted 
whether it ever has been done, and whether, in the cases 
claimed, the blood is pure and the pedigree sure. 

Perhaps no one is better qualified to speak of the Arab 
horses than the traveler Palgravc, whose command of the 
Eastern languages was such, that, in the guise of a native, 
he penetrated into the very heart of Arabia, and lived for 
months unsuspected among the people. Nay, in one of his 
journeys in Turkey, he actually officiated in one of the 
mosques in place of the regular priest, who had been taken 
sick. Practicing as a physician in the Nejed district, where 
the race of horses is the purest, and having been i)ermitted 
to see and examine the stud of the sultan, he says: "Never 
had I seen or imagined so lovely a collection. Their sta- 
ture was, indeed, somewhat low, — I do not think that 



218 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

any came fully up to fifteen hands : fourteen appeared to me 
to be about their average; but they were so exquisitely well 
shaped that want of greater size seemed hardly, if at all, a 
defect. Remarkably full in the haunches, with a shoulder 
of a slope so elegant as to make one, in the words of an 
Arab poet, *go raving mad over it'; a little, a very little 
saddle-backed, just the curve which indicates springiness 
without any weakness; a head broad above, and tapering 
down to a nose fine enough to verify the phrase of 'drinking 
from a pint-pot,' did pint-pots exist in Nejed; a most intel- 
ligent yet singularly gentle look; full eyes; sharp, thorn-like 
little ear; legs fore and hind that seemed as if made of ham- 
mered iron, so clean and yet so well twisted with sinew; a 
neat, round hoof, just the requisite for hard ground; the tail 
set on, or rather thrown out, at a perfect arch; coat smooth, 
shining and light; the mane long, but not overgrown or 
heavy; and an air and step that seemed to say, 'Look at 
me ; am I not pretty? ' Their ajjpearance justified all repu- 
tation, all value, all poetry. . . . But, if asked what are, 
after all, the especially distinctive points of the Arab horse, 
I should reply, the slope of the shoulder, the extreme clean- 
ness of the shank, and the full, rounded haunch, — though 
every other part, too, has a perfection and a harmony un- 
witnessed anywhere else." 

No Arab ever dreams of tying uj) his horse by the neck. 
The tether replaces the halter. A light iron ring furnished 
with a padlock encircles the hind leg just above the pastern. 
A rope is attached to this, and made fast to an iron peg set 
in the gromid. To make of their horse a devoted friend is 
the end sought after by all Arabs. With them he leads, so 
to speak, a domesticated life, in which, as in all domestic 



ADDRESSES 219 

life, women play a conspicuous part, — that, in fact, of pre- 
paring, by their gentleness, vigilance, and unceasing atten- 
tion, the solidarity that ought to exist between the man and 
the animal. A sustained education, daily contact with man, 
— that is their grand secret; it is that which makes the 
Arab horse what he is, — an object worthy of our unexcep- 
tional admiration. No wonder the Arab poets sing, with the 
metaphor and hyperbole peculiar to that glowing clime: 
"Say not it is my horse; say it is my son. He outstrips the 
flash in the pan, or the glance of the eye. His eye-sight is so 
good that he can distinguish a black hair in the niglit-time. 
In the day of battle he delights in the whistling of the balls. 
He overtakes the gazelle. He says to the eagle, 'Come 
down, or I will ascend to thee.' When he hears the voice 
of the maidens, he neighs with joy. When he gallops, he 
plucks out the tear from the eye. He is so light he could 
dance on the bosom of thy mistress without bruising it. He 
is a thorough-bred, the very head of horses. No one has ever 
possessed his equal. I depend on him as my own heart." 

The famous Arab chieftain, Abd-el-Kadr, who for so many 
years gloriously resisted French aggression in northern 
Africa, betrayed unhappily by fortune, but saved by his- 
tory, prepared, while languishing in confinement in France, 
a series of maxims concerning the horse and its management, 
that are worthy of close attention. His method of judging a 
horse is "to measure him from the root of the mane close to 
the withers, and descend to the end of the upper lip be- 
tween the nostrils. Then measure from the root of the mane 
to the end of the tail-bone, and if the fore-part is longer than 
the hind part, there is no doubt the horse will have excellent 
qualities. To ascertain if a young horse will grow any more, 



220 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

measure first from the knee to the highest point situated in 
the prolongation of the Umb above the withers, then from 
the knee downwards to the beginning of the hair above the 
coronet (to the crest of the hoof) ; if these two measures are 
to one another as two-thirds to one-third, the horse will grow 
no more. If this proportion does not exist, the animal has 
not done growing; for it is absolutely necessary that the 
height from the knee to the withers should represent, in a 
full-grown horse, exactly double the length of the leg from 
the knee to the hoof." 

And now, with a few choice maxims from the same hand, 
I must pass on to other themes : — 

No one becomes a horseman until he has been often thrown. 

Thorough-bred horses liave no vice. 

A horse in a leading-string is an honor to his master. 

Whoso forgets the beauty of horses for that of women,,will neverprosper. 

Horses know their riders. 

The best time of day for giving barley is the evening. Unless on a 

journey, it is useless to give it in the morning. 
Water a horse at sunrise, anil it makes him lose flesh. Water him in 

the evening, and it puts him in good condition. Water him in the 

middle of the day, and you keep him as he is. 
During the great forty-day heats, water your horses only every other 

day. 

"The pious Ben-el-Abbas — Allah be good to him! — 
hath said": — 

Love horses and take care of them. 
Spare no trouble; 

By them comes honor, by them comes beauty. 
If horses are forsaken of men, 
I will receive them into my family, 

I will share with them the bread of my children; 

My wives shall cover them with their veils. 

And cover themselves with the horse-cloths. 



ADDRESSES 221 

I ride them every day 

Over the field of adventures; 
Carried away in their impetuous career, 

I combat the most valiant. 
My steed is as black as a night without moon or stars. 

He was foaled in vast solitudes; 

He is an air-drinker, son of an air-drinker. 
His dam also was of noble race, and our horsemen have named 
him the javelin. 

The lightning flash itself cannot overtake him; 

Allah save him from the evil eye ! 

The mule needs no remark. He is the same useful, hard- 
working, unpopular animal in Turkey as in America. He 
has the same moral obliquity of character, and the same 
uncertainty in his business end, as elsewhere. His great 
usefulness in the transportation of goods makes him worthy 
of better treatment than he receives. 

The donkey, the poor donkey, is everywhere in the way. 
He is the common bearer of a certain class of burdens in all 
the cities. You meet him in every street. He crowds you 
to the wall with protruding load. Everybody curses and 
kicks him, while he is doing his best. He carries all the 
sand, lime, bricks, boards, and lighter timbers for building. 
He carries away all the refuse of every kind. He is the 
most useful, abused, and patient of animals. Men, women, 
and children ride him. He always leads the caravan of 
camels, mules, or horses. Everybody uses him; nobody 
loves him; everybody abuses him. The Eastern world could 
not live without him. 

The prince of burden-bearers is the camel. He is in 
truth the "ship of the desert." He bears enormous loads, 
of from six to eight hundred pounds, twenty-five to thirty 
miles a day. But for him all inland commerce would cease. 



222 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

From the far-off, isolated hamlets of the East he gathers 
uj) and brings down to the seaport towns, or to the few 
through which a railway passes, the products of the country, 
and returns laden with the merchandise of Europe. Awk- 
ward beyond description, with his short body and long neck 
and legs, moving noiselessly over the ground with his soft- 
padded feet, you wonder, and yet shrink from liim. Dia- 
bolical in expression, he is ugliness personified. 

In the breeds of cattle there is room for great improve- 
ment. There are none of superior breed; and beef of good 
quality is not to be found in Turkey. The best quality, 
which is imported, is from South Russia. Until the time of 
the Crimean War such a thing as beefsteak was hardly 
known. It was mutton, mutton everywhere. Well do we 
remember the first morsel of steak we ever tasted. It was 
fried in a frying-pan, done till there was n't a di op of juice 
in it, and came up garnished with garlic and onions, and 
covered over with parsley. But what a flavor it possessed ! 
"Something original and authentic," as Howells puts it, 
" mingled with vague reminiscences of canal-boat travel and 
woodland camp." Like the Englishman "who had no pre- 
judices," from that moment I hated mutton. 

The ox is small and hardy, but for heavy draft the buffalo 
is in constant use. This ugly-looking animal, whose para- 
dise is a mud-hole, into which he can sink with the excep- 
tion of his mouth and eyes, is very powerful. The female 
gives a milk that is rich, though somewhat strong and odor- 
ous. The manufacture of butter is infamously bad. The 
churns used are of various kinds. Earthen jars, shaped like 
a barrel, swelling in the centre, are filled with cream and 
then tilted up and down. The trmik of a tree, hollowed out 



ADDRESSES 223 

and boarded at both ends, is hung to a beam and swung to 
and fro. The skins of animals, particularly the goat, with the 
hair inside, are sewed in the form of a bag, and, being filled 
with cream, are rapidly rolled over and over on the ground 
until the butter comes. The gypsies, it is said, when start- 
ing on their journeys, will fill the skins with cream, and, sit- 
ting upon them, will find butter when they reach their jour- 
ney's end. It is said that in early times the missionaries 
used to punish their children by putting them under the 
table and making them shake a bottle of milk. Sawing the 
butter is a very necessary operation, and all well-provided 
families have a fine-tooth saw with which to extract the 
hairs from the butter. The natives melt the butter for cook- 
ing, and easily strain out the hair. But no attempt is ever 
made to eat it on bread. 

A missionary on the rich plains of the Sangarius tried 
to introduce a reform in the process of churning. He showed 
the farmers that in the markets of Constantinople their 
butter brought less than one-half the price of good English 
or Italian butter. He tried to introduce the American churn, 
and the mode of working, salting, and putting down. It is 
needless to say the attempt was an utter failure. They had 
always had hair and butter together, and they always would 
have, till death. In Proverbs (xxx, 33) we are told: "Surely 
the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing 
of the nose bringeth forth blood." There would seem to be 
at first sight, no special analogy between the process of 
churning and pulling a man's nose until the blood comes, 
if you consider our method alone. But, in the native op- 
eration, the comparison is a just one and natural: for 
the women seize and squeeze and wring the milk in their 



224 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

goat-skin bottles in a vigorous way which would soon fetch 
the blood if applied to the nasal organ of some antagonist. 

The mountains and plains of this great empire, both in 
Europe and Asia, afford unrivaled facilities for the keeping 
of sheep. In the summer the flocks pasture on the mountain 
slopes, while the shepherds with fire-arms and dogs keep 
careful watch against the attacks of wild beasts. In the 
winter, immense flocks migrate from European Turkey into 
the milder climate of Asia Minor. There is such an enor- 
mous extent of vacant pasture-land that no expense is 
incurred, except in the transportation of so many animals 
across the Bosphorus or Dardanelles. 

The fat-tailed Caramanian sheep are the most singular 
and surprising animals to be met with in Turkey. While yet 
lambs, the tail begins to broaden and thicken with a fat 
which is regarded by the natives as a great delicacy, and 
equal to butter for cooking purposes. In a few months the 
weight and size of the tail becomes a positive burden to the 
animal, furnishing, in those creatures that have been care- 
fully fed and tended, from fourteen to twenty pounds of pure 
fat, superior to lard, and entering into competition with but- 
ter. If, as often happens, the end of the tail drags upon the 
groimd, so as to endanger excoriation, a very simple though 
laughable remedy is resorted to. A little carriage, rudely 
made, with wheels about six or eight inches in diameter, is 
placed under the end of the tail, which is thus sufficiently 
sloped out from the body, and is so harnessed to the lord 
(or lady) of the tail, that it is borne about without injury, 
and may "laugh and grow fat" at its leisure. You may 
thus often see a sheep going on foot, and its tail following 
in a carriage. The natives will tell you that these carriage 



ADDRESSES 225 

tails sometimes produce seventeen okes (forty-six and three 
quarters pounds) of pure fat; but the Oriental imagination 
is prone to get the better of the real facts, and the figures 
above given (fourteen to twenty pounds) are perhaj>s nearer 
the truth. It is sufficient to know that the tails do some- 
times become so heavy as to anchor the sheep and cause 
its death, if suitable precautions are not taken. 

According to a recent article in the "Country Gentle- 
man," these sheep are found in Syria, Egypt, north Africa, 
Asia Minor and western Asia, and were described by Herod- 
otus and Aristotle more than two thousand years ago; but 
the writer could not resist adding a pound or two to his tale, 
and he claims that "animals are not rare whose tails weigh 
from one hundred to one hundred and twenty pounds, 
while the average weight is forty to sixty." 

Another fact is peculiar about the flocks of sheep and 
goats. The ewes are milked as regularly as we milk our 
cows, and it is done with wonderful rapidity. Two grasps 
of the overflowing udder, and it is emptied. Among my 
earliest recollections is that of a flock of goats being driven 
every morning to my father's door and there milked, in 
order to insure our receiving our day's supply of the lacteal 
fluid in its virgin purity. Immense quantities of cheese, 
made from the milk of sheep and goats, moulded into disks 
twelve to fourteen inches in diameter and an inch thick, 
are transported from the interior of the country to the mar- 
kets of the great city. 

Of the Angora goats, with their long, fine, silky hair, 
natives of the rocky slopes in the province of Angora, I 
have not the heart to speak. From the silky fibre of their 
hair, skilled workmen had long supplied the world with rare 



226 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

and high-priced goods of female apparel. But, with the 
priceless blessings of free trade, the country was flooded 
with a cheap imitation made by machinery. The flocks 
dwindled away, the occupation of whole villages was gone, 
and abject poverty and ruin overtook the wretched inhabit- 
ants. 

You will perhaps have noticed the absence of any allusion 
to the swine among the domestic animals enumerated. The 
reason is obvious. Considered as unclean beasts by both 
Turk and Jew, it is only in Christian villages that they are 
to be found. What was cursed under the Mosaic dispensa- 
tion and continued to be cursed under the Mohammedan, 
is still looked upon with suspicion by the faithful; and, 
though their mouths may water as the delicate aroma of 
roast suckling pig arises on the air, yet they rigidly abstain 
from any participation. Two infallible signs, one negative 
and one positive, disclose the character of a Christian town 
in Turkey, — the absence of minarets and the presence of 
pigs. In consequence of the pig being in this manner a 
Christian animal, there is an oppressive tax on pigs, levied 
when the animal is three months old. The risk incurred 
from the payment of so large a tax (ten piasters) on so young 
an animal is so great that many of them are killed shortly 
after birth, and an important article of food is lost to the 
peasantry. 

I have rambled on longer than I intended, for one re- 
miniscence has led on to another; but I cannot close without 
alluding to one more fact which must be patent to every 
thoughtful observer traveling in the Levant to-day, and 
that is, the constancy of the Eastern mind to itself, and the 
immutability of its customs and observances. The same 



ADDRESSES 227 

scenes penned by the writers of Holy Writ two thousand 
years ago are repeated to-day unchanged. 

Rebekah still lets down her pitcher at the wayside foun- 
tain, and helps the thirsty Labans to a refreshing draught. 

The tender Ruths still glean where Boaz reaps. 

The Miriams still dance and sing the song of triumph, 
as they go forth to welcome home their conquering heroes. 

The women still in humble posture grind their corn, as, 
sitting on the ground, they whirl the upper grindstone round 
upon the nether one. 

Still, at the evening meal, reclined about the table, raised 
but a few inches from the floor, they dip their piece of un- 
leavened bread into the common dish, just as in the days 
when Jesus said, "He that dippeth his hand with me in the 
dish, the same shall betray me." 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE MONKS IN 
AGRICULTURE 

I HAVE chosen for my subject this afternoon "The influ- 
ence of the monks in agriculture," — the influence of men 
who, taking their lives in their hands, flung themselves into 
the wild forests and abandoned wastes of Europe and the 
remoter East, and wrought a work which, so far as we can 
judge, could have been wrought in no other way; "for it 
was done by men who gave up all that makes life dear and 
worth the living, for the sake of being good themselves and 
making others good." They were the pioneers of a physical, 
no less than a moral, civilization. Never were instruments 
less conscious of the high ends they were serving, and never 
were high ends more rapidly or more effectually achieved. 
Apostles of the Lord, they pushed out into the midst of 
tribes only wilder and more savage than the country they 
inhabited, determined to bring them within the fold. But 
the instinct of self-preservation compelled them first to turn 
aside to reclaim and till the soil, to construct houses, to pro- 
vide themselves with the necessities of life, to practise the 
arts and sciences in order that they might live. And so, 
ministering to their bodily wants, they ended by forcing 
upon their barbaric neighbors, first, civilization, and then 
Christianity. Kingsley, in his spirited way, tells us: "They 
accepted the lowest and commonest facts of the peasant's 
life. They outdid him in helplessness and loneHness, in 
hunger and dirt and slavery, and then said : ' Among all these 



ADDRESSES 229 

I can yet be a man of God, wise, virtuous, free and noble in 
the sight of God, though not in the sight of Caesar's courts 
and knights.'" 

The time at which this great work began was almost coin- 
cident with the Christian era, and lasted through what we 
are pleased to call the dark or mediaeval ages, which, how- 
ever, when we come to examine them, we find to our sur- 
prise filled with light, with charities of the noblest kind 
and enduring monuments of Christian grace. 

With the fall of the Roman empire and the influx of the 
great waves of barbaric tribes that swept over Europe, 
civilization was stamped out and Christianity ceased to 
exist. The cleared lands and cultivated fields reverted to 
forest and moor, cities and towns lay in ruins, and the citi- 
zen was reduced to the condition of the beggar and the slave. 
The despairing cry of St. Jerome from his peaceful hermit- 
age at Bethlehem fell vainly on the ears of a hopeless world : 
"For twenty years Roman blood has been flowing every 
day between Constantinople and the Julian Alps. Scythia, 
Thrace, Macedonia, Dacia, Thessalonica and Epirus all 
belong to the barbarians, who ravage, rend and destroy 
everything before them. How many noble matrons and 
maids have been the toys of their lust; how many bishops in 
chains, priests butchered, churches destroyed, altars turned 
into stables, relics profaned ! Sorrow, mourning and death 
are everywhere. The Roman world is crumbling into ruins." 
And what St. Jerome so vividly describes of the Eastern 
world was equally true of the West. France, Germany, 
Spain, Italy, and England had all fallen a prey to the never- 
ending swarms that poured across the barrier rivers, the 
Rhine and the Danube. 



230 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

But out of the midst of this universal chaos and desola- 
tion now burst forth an army of Christian soldiers. Some, 
taking upon themselves vows of solitude and self-renuncia- 
tion, penetrated the wilderness to live as ascetics, — a life 
of prayer and holy calm, withdrawn from the turmoil and 
wretchedness of the world; others, seeking out the most 
inaccessible and unfrequented spots, erected their build- 
ings, and, gathering about them their disciples, entered upon 
the true monastic life; while yet others again, as missiona- 
ries, advanced boldly into the enemy's dominions, to con- 
quer back for the church the territory it had lost, and to 
gather into its folds these new peoples and new tribes whose 
invasion had destroyed the Roman world. And it was their 
glory that in a few short centuries they succeeded. But, 
whether as hermits or missionaries or monks they aban- 
doned their homes and embraced this painful life, the result 
was in every case the same, — agriculture and the arts first, 
and civilization and Christianity last. It could not be other- 
wise; the necessities of the case compelled it. Solitaries 
who shrank from all contact with humanity were becoming 
the unconscious instruments of the civilization and con- 
version of savages and heathen. They penetrated valleys 
choked with rocks, brambles, and brushwood, the over- 
growth of generations interlaced into a barrier not to be 
penetrated by anything weaker than their untiring energy. 
They are the sternest of ascetics and most isolated of her- 
mits. But their rest is broken by penitents who come to 
ask their blessing and who implore permission to live imder 
their authority. The solitary cell of the hermit becomes the 
nucleus of a society, — the society a centre of many congre- 
gations radiating from it. The little plot of herbs becomes 



ADDRESSES 231 

a garden; the garden stretches out into fields of waving 
grain; the hills are clothed with vines, the valleys bowered 
in fruit trees. 

Opening their doors to all, receiving under their shelter 
and protection the oppressed, the weak, the criminal, the 
slave, the sin-sick soul, weary of this life and despairing of 
another, the mourner and the comfortless, it frequently 
happened that the inmates of these cloisters, those attached 
to one commimity and under one jurisdiction, numbered 
thousands. Lecky tells us that in one city on the Nile 
there were twenty thousand monks and ten thousand 
nuns, — the religious far outnumbering the other classes of 
society. In England and Ireland these monastic commu- 
nities assumed a peculiar form. Ejngs, followed by their 
entire tribe, presented themselves at the baptismal font and 
came under religious rule; and frequently these kings were 
chosen abbots, and as in their worldly life they had ruled 
their subjects, so in their spiritual life they continued to be 
their recognized head and leader. To such an extent was 
this carried, that in England in the course of a single cen- 
tury there resulted an alarming diminution of the military 
resources of the country; and there is still extant a letter of 
the great churchman, the Venerable Bede, in which, im- 
ploring the kings and bishops to put a stop to the grants of 
land for monastic purposes, because subsequently misused, 
he says: "Many Northumbrians put aside their arms, cut 
off their hair and hasten to enroll themselves in the monas- 
tic ranks, instead of exercising themselves in their military 
duties. The future alone will tell what good will result from 
this." Perhaps some of you will recollect a more modern 
instance in the law of Peter the Great, forbidding any State 



232 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

officer, citizen in business, or workman, to enter the cloisters, 
declaring that he would not consecrate to idleness subjects 
that might be useful. 

To support now these throngs of people that assumed the 
cowl, it was necessary for the monks to devote themselves 
to agriculture and horticulture, and this they did in a most 
successful manner. "It is impossible to forget," says the 
great historian of the monks, "it is impossible to forget the 
use they made of so many vast districts (holding as they did 
one fifth of all the land in England), uncultivated and unin- 
habited, covered with forests, or surrounded with marshes. 
For such, it must not be forgotten, was the true nature of 
the vast estates given to the monks, and which had thus the 
double advantage of offering to communities the most inac- 
cessible retreats that could be found, and of imposing the 
least possible sacrifice upon the munificence of the giver." 
Kings and barons vied with each other in their eagerness to 
save their souls from hell and pave the way to heaven by 
giving to these poor monks land the most desolate and un- 
fertile, land no other human beings would inhabit, land cov- 
ered with sand or rock or buried in water for the greater 
part of the year. 

How man or woman born could live in such unwholesome 
and unproductive spots and thrive seems absolutely mi- 
raculous, but these patient toilers of the church surmounted 
all the difficulties which stared them in the face, of begin- 
ning the cultivation of a new country.^ The forests were 
cleared, the marshes made wholesome or dried up, the 
soil irrigated or drained, according to the requirements 
of each locality, while bridges, roads, dykes, havens, and 
* Montalembert, Monks of the West. 



ADDRESSES 233 

lighthouses were erected wherever their possessions or in- 
fluence extended. The half at least of broad Northumber- 
land, covering an area of about two thousand square miles, 
was lost in sandy plains and barren heaths; the half at 
least of East Anglia and a considerable part of Mercia were 
covered with marshes, difficult of access. Yet in both 
these regions the monks substituted for these uninhabit- 
able deserts fat pasturage and abundant harvests. The 
latter district, the present name of which (the Fens) alone 
recalls the marshy and unwholesome nature of the soil, 
became the principal theatre of the triumphs of agricult- 
ural industry, performed by the monks. Medehampstead 
(now Peterborough), Ely, Croyland, Thorney (now South- 
ampton), Ramsay, were the first battlefields of these con- 
querors of nature, these monks who made of themselves 
ploughmen, breeders and keepers of stock, and who were 
the true fathers of English agriculture, which, thanks to 
their traditions and example, has become the first agri- 
culture in the world. 

Perhaps in no better way can I more graphically bring 
before you the immense work of the monks than by giving 
you a picture of the fen district of Southampton before 
Thorney Abbey was founded, and then reading you the 
description of this abbey by the great bishop of Tyre, Wil- 
liam of Malmesbury. Southampton is a peninsula making 
down between the mouths of the Itchen and the Test or 
Anton into the tide-swept channel that separates it from 
the Isle of Wight. It was nothing but a vast morass.* The 
fens in the seventh century were probably like the forests at 
the mouth of the Mississippi or the swamp shores of the 
' Kingsley, Hermits. 



234 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Carolinas. It was a labyrinth of black, wandering streams; 
broad lagoons, morasses submerged every spring-tide; 
vast beds of reed and sedge and fern; vast copses of willow, 
alder, and gray poplar, rooted in the floating peat, which 
was swallowing up slowly, all-devouring, yet all-preserving, 
the forests of fir and oak, ash and po])lar, hazel and yew, 
which had once grown in that low, rank soil. Trees torn 
down by flood and storm floated and lodged in rafts, dam- 
ming the waters back uj)on the land. Streams bewildered 
in the forests changed their channels, mingling silt and sand 
with the black soil of the peat. Nature left to herself ran 
into wild riot and chaos more and more, till the whole 
fen became one dismal swamp. 

Four or five centuries later William of Malmesbury visits 
the i)lace and leaves us this charming i)icturcof the change : ^ 
"It is a counterfeit of Paradise, where the gentleness and 
purity of heaven appear already to be reflected. In the 
midst of the fens rise groves of trees which seem to touch 
the stars with their tall and slender tops; the charmed eye 
wanders over a sea of verdant herbage, the foot which 
treads the wide meadow meets with no obstacle in its 
path. Not an inch of land as far as the eye can reach lies 
uncultivated. Here the soil is hidden by fruit trees; there 
by vines stretched upon the ground or trailed on trellises. 
Nature and art rival each other, the one supi)lying all that 
the other forgets to produce. O deep and pleasant solitude ! 
Thou hast been given by God to the monks, so that their 
mortal life may daily bring them nearer to heaven." 

Everywhere we see the monks instructing the population 
in the most profitable methods and industries, naturalizing 
* Chronicle of William of Malmesbury. 



ADDRESSES 235 

under a vigorous sky the most useful vegetables and the 
most productive grains, importing continually into the 
countries they colonized animals of better breed, or plants 
new and unknown there before; here introducing the rear- 
ing of cattle and horses, there bees or fruit; in another place 
the brewing of beer with hops; in Sweden, the corn trade; 
in Burgundy, artificial pisciculture; in Ireland, salmon 
fisheries; about Parma, cheese-making, and finally occupy- 
ing themselves with the culture of the vine, and planting 
the best vineyards of Burgundy, the Rhine, Auvergne, and 
England; for the monks of Croyland introduced the vine 
even into the fens of Ely and in other countries where it 
has now disappeared. They were the first to turn their at- 
tention to improving the breeds of cattle, declaring that 
the promiscuous union of nobody's son with everybody's 
daughter resulted in half-starved oxen "euyll for the stone 
and euyll for digestyon, fitter to be used outside as a water- 
proof e than inside." They taught the necessity of letting 
the land be fallow for a time after several years of continu- 
ous cropping; they practised rotation of crops, using clover 
as the last in the series ; they improved the different varieties 
of fruits and learned the art of grafting, budding, and layer- 
ing; they taught by precept and example the value of drain- 
age and irrigation. In short, in everything making for pro- 
gressive agriculture we find them blazing the way; and when 
the monasteries were suppressed by Henry VIII, a death- 
blow was struck for a time at scientific agriculture and 
horticulture. 

And what they did for England was paralleled by their 
work upon the continent. Need we point to any other in- 
stance than that of Vitrucius peopling the sand-banks of 



236 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Flanders or Belgium with religious, who, by their unwearied 
industry, reclaimed those arid wastes and turned those 
burning sands into one vast garden? Need we speak of the 
country separating Belgium from Holland, and how it was 
cleared by the monks who taught its wild inhabitants agri- 
culture as well as Christianity? In a manuscript bearing 
date of 1420 a monk proposed the artificial propagation of 
trout. It was the monks of Fulda who started the cele- 
brated vineyards of Johannisberg, the Cistercian monks 
that of Clos Vougeot, The Benedictines brought vines from 
Beaune to plant on the banks of the Allicr. The monks of 
Mozat set out walnut trees, still so abundant in Lower Au- 
vergne. They first cared for the preservation of forests as 
affecting climate and fertility. They stored up the waters 
of springs and distributed them in drought ; and it was the 
monks of the abbeys of St. Laurent and St. Martin who 
first brought together and conducted to Paris the waters of 
springs wasting themselves on the meadows of St. Gervais 
and Belleville; and in Lombardy it was the followers of St. 
Bernard who taught the peasants the art of irrigation, and 
made that country the most fertile and t he richest in Europe. 
We approach now another and higher phase of monastic 
life. In its earlier days we find the monks engaging in the 
practice of agriculture from the necessities arising out of 
the conditions in which they were placed. They had 
ploughed, they had sowed, they had reaped, in order to 
preserve their lives. But now agriculture becomes a part 
of their religion, and the great St. Benedict enjoins upon 
his disciples three objects for filling up their time : Agricul- 
ture, literary pursuits, and copying manuscripts.^ He 
* Weishardt, History of Monasiicism. 



ADDRESSES 237 

comes before the world saying: "No person is ever more 
usefully employed than when working with his hands or 
following the plough, providing for the use of man. . . . 
He bent himself to the task of teaching the rich and the 
proud, the poor and the lazy, the alphabet of prosperity 
and happiness." 

Agriculture was sunk to a low ebb. Marshes covered once 
fertile fields, and the men who should have tilled the land 
spurned the plough as degrading. The monks left their 
cells and their prayers to dig ditches and plough fields. The 
effort was magical. Men once more turned back to a noble 
but despised industry, and peace and plenty supplanted 
war and poverty. So well recognized were the blessings they 
brought, that an old German proverb among the peasants 
runs, "It is good to live under the crozier." They ennobled 
manual labor, which, in a degenerate Roman world, had 
been performed exclusively by slaves, and among bar- 
barians by women. For the monks, it is no exaggeration to 
say that the cultivation of the soil was like an immense 
alms spread over a whole country. The abbots and super- 
iors set the example, and stripping off their sacerdotal 
robes toiled as common laborers. Like the good parson 
whom Chaucer portrays in the Prologue to the "Canter- 
bury Tales":— 

This noble ensample unto his scheep he gaf 
That first he wroughte and after that he taughte. 

When a papal messenger came in haste to consult the 
Abbot Equutius on important matters of the church, he 
was not to be found anywhere, but was finally discovered in 
the valley cutting hay. Under such guidance and such 
example the monks upheld and taught everywhere the 



238 iHENRY HILL GOODELL 

dignity of labor, first, by consecrating to agriculture the 
energy and intelligent activity of freemen, often of high 
birth and clothed with the double authority of the priest- 
hood and of hereditary nobility, and second, by associating 
under the Benedictine habit sons of kings, princes, and 
nobles with the rudest labors of peasants and serfs. 

There is still another phase of this monastic life. We 
have seen that the one universal and regular duty imposed 
was the necessity of being constantly employed. It was 
work for the sake of work. The object sought was not so 
much what would be produced by the labor as to keep the 
body and mind so constantly employed that temptations 
could find no access and sin would therefore be escaped. 
Consequently it was a matter of comparative indifference 
what the work was. The harder and more painful and un- 
attractive to men in general it might be, so much the better 
for the monk. If sufficiently difficult, the element of pen- 
ance was added, and it became a still more effectual means 
of grace. In this way the monks did a great amount of 
extremely useful work which no one else would have under- 
taken. Especially is this true of the clearing and reclaiming 
of land. A swamp was of no value. It was a source of 
pestilence. But it was just the place for a monastery be- 
cause it made life especially hard ; and so the monks carried 
in earth and stone, and made a foundation, and built their 
convent, and then set to work to dyke and drain and fill up 
the swamp, till they had turned it into fertile plough-land 
and the pestilence had ceased. 

The connection of the monasteries with the great centres 
of population to-day is an interesting one.^ The require- 
^ Gibbins, Industrial History of England. 



ADDRESSES 239 

ments of the monks and the instruction they were enabled 
to impart soon led to the establishment in their immediate 
neighborhood of the first settlement of artificers and retail 
dealers, while the excess of their crops, their flocks and their 
herds gave rise to the first markets, which were as a rule 
held before the gate of the abbey church, or within the 
church-yard, among the tombs. Thus hamlets and towns 
were formed which became the centres of trade and general 
intercourse, and thus originated the market-tolls and the 
jurisdiction of these spiritual lords. Out of these hamlets 
clustered around the monasteries arose in England South- 
ampton, Peterborough, Bath, Colchester, Oxford, Cam- 
bridge, Ely, and many others. 

In the earlier days the monks had always taken the lead 
in farming, and if improvements were introduced it was 
sure to be the monks who were the pioneers. How useful 
the monasteries had been, and what an important factor 
they were, is perhaps best seen from the effect their disso- 
lution had upon the laboring classes. Henry VIII sup- 
pressed six hundred and forty-four monasteries, ninety col- 
leges, two thousand three hundred and seventy-four free 
chapels, and one hundred and ten hospitals. These held 
one fifth of all the land in the kingdom and one third the na- 
tional wealth. At the same time nearly one hundred thou- 
sand male persons were thrown out of employment. "It is 
possible," says Symes in Traill's "Social England," "that 
the relieving of a large number of persons from the obliga- 
tions of celibacy partly accounts for the great increase of the 
population which undoubtedly took place in Henry's reign. 
Moreover, experience proves that people reduced to poverty 
and desperation often show extraordinary recklessness in 



240 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

bringing people into the world." However that may be, we 
find the population, from the reign of Henry VII to the 
death of Henry VIII, increasing from two and one half 
millions to four millions. 

But this change in population without corresponding dis- 
tribution of wealth, this transference of one third the na- 
tional wealth, was attended by another still more disas- 
trous effect, and that was "the change in the character of 
the demand for labor, which reduced to the ranks of the 
unskilled those whose skill was no longer in demand." 
The land taken up by the king was bestowed upon his 
nobles and favorites, and these, desirous of securing im- 
mediate and larger profits, enclosed immense areas and 
turned to the breeding and pasturing of sheep. It was 
the substitution of pasture for tillage, of sheep for corn, 
of commercialism for a simple, self-sufficing industry, of 
individual gain for the old agrarian partnership in which 
the lords or abbots, the parsons, yeomen, farmers, copy- 
holders, and laborers were associated for the supply of the 
wants of the villagers.^ A perfect frenzy for raising sheep 
took possession of the agricultural community. No pains 
were spared to increase the extent of pasturage. Small 
tenants were evicted, laborers' cottages were pulled down, 
the lords' demesnes turned into pastures, and wastes and 
commons which had before been open to all were now en- 
closed for the same purpose. Every one was now con- 
vinced that "the foot of the sheep would turn sand into 
gold," and hastened to substitute grazing for tillage. 

But while there was this sudden and wholesale trans- 
ference of the arable land to pasturage, as sudden and vio- 
^ Traill, Social England. 



ADDRESSES 241 

lent a change in the character of labor was required. The 
dog and the shepherd took the place of the ploughmen and 
their teams, and thus diminished the demand for labor at 
the very moment when the supply was increased. Very 
serious results followed. The poorer tenants were ruined and 
an immense number of persons were thrown out of employ- 
ment, to become beggars and thieves. It was, says Gibbins, 
in the "Industrial History of England," the beginning of 
English pauperism. That this was no trifling change in the 
social condition of the people the following quotations will 
prove: "The Statute-book for 1489 tells us that the Isle of 
Wight is lately become decayed of people, by reason of 
many towns and villages having been beaten down and is 
desolate and not inhabited, but occupied with beasts and 
cattle; throughout England, too, we are assured that idle- 
ness daily doth increase; for where in some towns two hun- 
dred were occupied and lived of their lawful labor, now there 
are occupied only two or three herdsmen," Starkey, the 
royal chaplain in the next reign, only puts this more epi- 
grammatically when he says: "Where hath been many 
houses and churches to the honor of God, now you shall find 
nothing but sheepcotes and stables to the ruin of men, and 
that not in one place or two, but generally throughout this 
realm." Finally, if any further evidence is wanted to show 
that great hardships were being entailed upon the peasantry 
there are the indignant words of Sir Thomas More, in which 
he bids us sympathize with "the husbandmen thrust out 
of their own, or else by covin and fraud, or by violent 
oppression put beside it, or by wrongs and injuries so 
wearied that they sell all"; and goes on to denounce the 
noblemen and gentlemen, yea, and certain abbots that lease 



242 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

no grounds for tillage; that enclose all into pasture, and 
throw down houses; that pluck down towns and leave no- 
thing standing, but only the church to be made a sheep- 
house. 

In a word, then, the monks were the scientific farmers of 
the day. They had access to all the knowledge of the an- 
cients, and the constant intercourse with their brethren in 
other countries kept them acquainted with methods of agri- 
culture and products other than their own; and when their 
great religious houses were suppressed, agriculture, of which 
they had been the pioneers, came for a time to a standstill. 

There were four great periods in which these disciples of 
civilization were steadily pushing their way into the dark- 
ness of an unregenerate world; and in like manner there 
were four great periods in which, in one way or another, 
vast estates were added to their jurisdiction and came under 
their kindly influence. The first, covering the first five 
centuries of the Christian era, may not inappropriately be 
termed that of the Apostles and early fathers. And I can- 
not help quoting here the vivid words of Hillis, descriptive 
of that era: "With matchless enthusiasm these young 
knights of the new chivalry leaped into the arena. Begin- 
ning at Jerusalem they scattered in every direction, march- 
ing forth like columns of light. When twenty years had 
passed Matthew was two thousand miles to the southwest. 
At the same time Jude was two thousand miles to the 
northeast. James the Less journeyed east into Judea. Paul 
journeyed to the west. When twoscore years had passed 
all the disciples save one had achieved a violent death and 
blazed out paths in the dark, tangled forests. And when 
the torch fell from the hands of these heroes, their disciples 



ADDRESSES 243 

snatched up the light and rushed on to new victories. Now 
that long time has passed, history has summarized the influ- 
ence of these missionaries. If we ask who destroyed the 
great social evils of Rome, Lecky answers, 'The Christian 
missionaries.' Ask when the rude tribes of the northern 
forests began to be nations, Hallam answers, ' When Boni- 
face crossed the Alps on his Christian mission.' Asked for 
the beginning of England's greatness. Green tells us the 
story of the two Christian teachers who one winter's night 
entered the rude banquet hall of King Ethelbert." 

About the middle of this period commenced the hermit 
or ascetic life in the far East. Paul, Anthony, Pacomius, 
and others, gathering together the thousands of disciples 
that had followed them, peopled the arid wastes and rocky 
valleys of the Thebaid with their nuns and monks. 

Next follows the missionary period, in which these de- 
voted soldiers of the cross, pushing their adventurous way 
into every part of Europe, reconquered for the church the 
territory it had lost, and, planting their monasteries in the 
wildest and most unfrequented spots, became the heralds of 
civilization and Christianity. In this period and in the last 
the monasteries were largely enriched by the gifts of the 
faithful, — in most cases the donors begging the interces- 
sion of the monks in their behalf. Thus St. Eloysius in his 
charter to the monks of Solignac writes: "I, your suppli- 
ant, in the sight of the mass of my sins, and in hopes of 
being delivered from them by God, give to you a little 
thing for a great, earth in exchange for heaven, that which 
passes away for that which is eternal." So Peter, the Lord 
of Maule, says: "The prudent ant as she sees winter ap- 
proach makes the more haste to bring in her stores, so as to 



244 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

assure herself of abundant food during the cold weather. 
I, Peter, profiting by this lesson, and desirous, though a 
sinner and unworthy, to provide for my future destiny, I 
have desired that the bees of God may come to gather 
honey in my orchards, so that when their fair hives shall be 
full of rich combs of this honey, they may be able, while 
giving thanks to their Creator, to remember him by whom 
this hive was given." 

Eager, ardent, and impetuous, these anchorites seemed 
to take the continent by storm. ^ Amid the gloom of the 
Thuringian forests, among the wild precipices and caves of 
the mountains of the Hartz, on the wild, desolate shores of 
the German and Baltic seas, amid the glaciers and fiords 
of the Scandinavian i)eninsula, on the banks of the Ysill 
and the Weser, from the Weser to the Elbe and thence to 
the ocean, these devoted missionaries toiled and taught and 
laid down their lives. 

The third great period came at the close of the tenth cen- 
tury, and may be termed the age of expectancy and dread. 
All things seemed coming to an end, and the year one thou- 
sand was fixed upon as the day when the heavens should 
melt with fervent heat and the hills be rolled together and 
crushed. We can scarcely form any idea of the feverish 
state of mind of society. As the days sped on and the time 
approached for the universal dissolution of nature, the panic 
was at its height. Property was disposed of for a merely 
nominal sum, or willed to the Church, the bequest commenc- 
ing with these words, " In expectation of the approaching end 
of the world." The monasteries and abbeys received vast 
acquisitions of property and were thronged with sinners 
' McLear, Apostles of MedicBval Europe. 



ADDRESSES 245 

seeking a refuge within the pale of the Church. Kings laid 
down their sceptres and lands were left untilled. Famine 
and pestilence added their horrors to the universal despair. 
Human flesh was openly consumed and the graves of the 
dead were rifled to furnish sustenance to the living. Night 
after night, at any unusual disturbance of the elements, 
whole families, nay, the inhabitants of whole villages, left 
their beds and watched the livelong night, shivering, upon 
the bleak hillsides, or in the gateways of the churches. 
The fear of death was upon all, — God and the judgment- 
bar an ever-present reality. The terrors of an unknown 
world stared them in the face. Hell opened wide the por- 
tals of its gates, and the cries and torments of the damned 
seemed to rise up, upon the excited ear. "Help, Lord, for 
we perish! Save, Lord, from thy wrath!" was the wail of 
a despairing world. 

Can we wonder that, in such circumstances as these, 
surrounded by such an atmosphere as this, the Church 
should gain a predominating influence, and that as a me- 
dium between God and man it should stretch forth its arm 
and be recognized as all-powerful and efficient? And when 
the last night of suspense was over and the sun had risen 
again, and men breathed freer and felt that the crisis was 
past, would they not have a feeling of gratitude that ex- 
pressed itself in gifts to those whom they had learned to 
look upon as intercessors? 

The fourth and last period is that of the Crusades, when 
all Europe, stirred by one single impulse, leaps into vigorous 
life, and hurries, men, women, and children, to the rescue of 
the Holy Land. Of the universality of this movement, the 
last impulse of the migratory instinct among these tribes so 



246 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

lately settled down, William of Malmesbury, afterwards 
Bishop of Tyre, has left us a striking account in his Chroni- 
cle. Having said that after the great council of Clermont 
every one retired to his home, he continues thus: "Imme- 
diately the fame of this great event bemg spread through 
the universe, penetrates the minds of Christians with its 
mild breath, and wherever it blew there was no nation, how- 
ever distant or obscure it might be, that did not send some 
of its people. This zeal not only animated the provinces 
bordering on the Mediterranean, but all who had ever heard 
the name of a Christian in the most remote isles and among 
barbarous nations. Then the Welshman abandoned his 
forests and neglected his hunting; the Scotchman deserted 
his fleas, with which he is so familiar; the Dane ceased to 
swallow his intoxicating draughts, and the Norican turned 
his back upon his raw fish. The fields were left by the cul- 
tivators and the houses by the inhabitants; all the cities 
were deserted. People were restrained neither by ties of 
blood nor the love of country; they saw nothing but God. 
All that was in the granaries or destined for food was left 
under the guardianship of the greedy agriculturist. The 
voyage to Jerusalem was the only thing hoped for or thought 
of. Joy animated the hearts of those who set out; grief 
dwelt in the hearts of those who remained. Why do I say 
of those who remained? You might have seen the husband 
setting forth with his wife, with all his family; yea, you 
would have laughed to see all the penates put in motion and 
loaded upon carts. The road was too narrow for the pas- 
sengers, more room was wanted for the travelers, so great 
and numerous was the crowd." 

From this great movement, which lasted two hundred 



ADDRESSES 247 

years, the Church gained an enormous increase of power and 
territory. The secular princes ruined themselves for the 
cause of Jesus Christ, whilst the princes of the Church took 
advantage of the fervor of the Christians to enrich them- 
selves. It bought up for a mere song an immense extent 
of property, which the owners disposed of to raise the 
funds requisite to equip them for this long journey, and thus 
laid the foundation for those extensive church endowments 
which in the time of Luther and the French Revolution 
excited so bitter a controversy. 

Summing up then the influence of the monks, we can 
outline it thus: The rule of St. Benedict presented agri- 
culture as an occupation useful and worthy of a truly reli- 
gious person whose life was to be spent between manual 
labor and spiritual contemplation.^ He taught that the 
brothers ought not to feel themselves humiliated if poverty 
compelled them to gather with their own hands the pro- 
ducts of the soil. First, then, they themselves cultivated the 
ground, and this has been continued even until our own 
time in certain orders. The monks of Citeaux were par- 
ticularly distinguished in this respect, for in their earlier 
days it was not permitted them to possess any revenues. 
When a new monastery was founded there was ordinarily 
bestowed upon it land not yet broken or land which, hav- 
ing been devastated by the incursions of the enemy, had 
become useless to its owner. Sometimes it was covered 
with forests or with water, or it was a sterile valley sur- 
rounded by lofty mountains, or a country in which there 
was no arable land and it was necessary for the monastery 
to purchase earth in the neighborhood and bring it in. The 
^ Hurler, Geschichte Papst Innocenz III und seiner Zeitgenossen. 



248 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

monks cleared with their own hands the forests and erected 
peaceful habitations for man in the spots where formerly 
had lurked the wolf and the bear. They turned aside devast- 
ating torrents, they restrained, by means of dykes, rivers 
accustomed to overflow their banks; and soon the deserts 
where before was heard only the cry of the owl and the 
hiss of the serpent were changed into smiling fields and fat 
pasturage. The love of solitude, the desire of placing by 
every means possible a check to human passion, inspired 
them to seek out sites the most unhealthy and to render 
them by cultivation not only sanitary but even profitable. 
Modern writers recognize that Italy, devastated by the re- 
peated incursions of Barbarians, owed its restoration, its 
tranquillity, and the preservation of the last remains of art 
to the monasteries. Wherever we see them rise we see 
agriculture reappear, — the people relieved from their bur- 
dens, and kindly relations established between the master 
and the slave. 

In the twelfth century impenetrable forests still covered 
the valley of the Jura. A monastery of the order of Premon- 
tre cut down the first trees in their forests and attracted 
there the first colonists. A monastery of the order of Citeaux 
had but a short time previously restricted within its 
banks the river Saone, which covered with its overflow the 
foot of Rodomont. It cleared the soil of the virgin forest 
where now is situated the little city of Rougemont with its 
two thousand inhabitants. At great expense and by almost 
superhuman efl'ort dykes were opposed to the waves of the 
ocean, and they snatched from the element a soil which the 
work of man changed afterward into fertile fields. Marshes 
became arable land and the home of man. The monks 



ADDRESSES 249 

loved to acquire these marshes in order to render ihcm 
amenable to cultivation, and frequently even their monas- 
teries rose out of the bosom of the waters. When it was 
impossible to drain them, or when economy demanded it, 
they brought straw and laid it down in bundles, and upon 
these bundles earth was placed. They dug out ponds into 
which they collected the superfluous waters by tiles used to 
drain the land. In this way the monastic orders extended 
the cultivation of the soil from the south of Europe even 
to the most distant north. They facilitated communication 
between different points, and were the organizers of differ- 
ent kinds of industry. Sweden owes to them the perfection 
of its race of horses and the beginnings of commerce in wheat. 
On the island of Tuteron, where was formerly located a 
monastery of the order of Citeaux, plants still grow spon- 
taneously, which in the neighborhood one is compelled to 
cultivate with care. The Abbot William brought the first 
salad from France into Denmark. If in the eleventh cen- 
tury England could boast of an agriculture more advanced 
than many other countries, if it presented less forest and 
heath and more cultivated lands and fat pasturage, it owes 
it to the zeal of the monks who had found there in early 
times a hospitable welcome. It was the monks who in 
Flanders cleared the forests, drained the marshes, rendered 
fertile the sandy lands, snatched from the sea its most an- 
cient possessions and changed a desert into a blooming 
garden. 

There were certain abbeys, especially in England, that 
took the greatest care not to clear the country of all trees. 
It is related of Alexander, the first Abbot of Kirkstall, that, 
foreseeing the necessities of the future, he forbade the cut- 



250 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

ting down of the vast forest he had acquired by divine pro- 
tection, and preferred to purchase elsewhere the timber he 
required in erecting his large buildings. The monks of 
Pipwel in Northampton did not cease to plant trees in their 
forests and were said to watch over them as a mother over 
an only child. For their own private necessities they made 
use of dead, dry wood and reeds. 

As a rule, the monks took great care in the cultivation of 
their land to conform to the laws of climate, soil, and lo- 
cality. In the north they devoted themselves especially 
to the raising of cattle, and in these countries the greatest 
privileges that could be given them were woods and the 
right to allow the swine to wander in them. In other coun- 
tries they occupied themselves in the cultivation of fruit 
trees, the improvement of which was their work. It was 
the celebrated nursery of Chartreuse of Paris that up to the 
epoch of the Revolution furnished fruit trees to almost the 
whole of France, and the remembrance of their labors still 
lives in the name of certain delicious fruits, such as the 
doyenne and hon chretien pears. The finest orchards and 
vineyards belonged to the monasteries. All the chronicles 
speak of the cultivation of Mt. Menzing in the Canton of 
Zug, which produced abundantly wheat and fruits and par- 
ticularly nuts. The friendly relations existing between the 
monasteries, the interchange of visits between the monks of 
the different establishments, were of great advantage, for 
foreign plants and fruits were exchanged and cultivated. 

The monks were the first to devise tools for gardening. 
They had calendars in which were set down all that experi- 
ence had taught them respecting the breeding of cattle, the 
sowing of land, the harvesting of crops, and every kind of 



ADDRESSES 251 

plantation. William of Malmesbury boasts of the fertility 
of the valley of Gloucester in wheat, in fruits, and in vine- 
yards, adding that the wines of this province are the best in 
England and scarcely yield in quality to the wines of France. 
The best vineyards of Germany not only belonged to the 
monasteries, but had been planted by them, and we are 
forced to recognize the judgment with which these first 
planters selected their grounds. Tradition tells us that the 
monks of St. Peter in the Black Forest planted the first vines 
in the neighborhood of Weilheim and Bissingen, and the 
wine of this latter place is still the best in the whole country. 
The monks of Lorsch planted the vineyards of Bergstrasse 
and those along the banks of the Khine. Epicures when 
drinking the delicious wine of Johannisberg still recall with 
gratitude the monastery of Fulda. In every country of 
Europe the monks stimulated the progress of agriculture as 
much by their personal efforts as by the example they gave 
to others. It was fortunate for the world that the first 
founders of the religious orders enjoined upon their dis- 
ciples manual labor rather than spiritual, and that the first 
monasteries were founded not in the cities, as those which 
were founded later, but in the wildest and most unfre- 
quented spots, which were transformed by their activity 
and labors into the homes of thousands of peaceful and in- 
dustrious men. 

What I have said of the monks of Europe is equally true 
of the missions of this country. There was the same evolu- 
tion, and at their dissolution the same fate. 

When Father Junipero Serra and his followers came as 
Franciscan missionaries and established the chain of mis- 
sions at San Diego, Los Angeles, San Gabriel, Monterey, 



HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Santa Clara, San Buenaventura, San Juan Capistrano and 
San Francisco (Dolores), and San Luis Obispo, between 
1767 and 1783, they estimated that there were over eighty 
thousand Indians in Alta California. At the mission of 
San Gabriel there were about seven thousand. The priests 
wrote that they had never found anywhere such tractable 
and energetic savages as those in California.^ 

After a few years the missionaries were never afraid to 
trust their lives and property among the Indians. The 
fathers taught the Indians at the several missions to sow 
wheat, grind corn, till the soil, raise herds of cattle, dress 
hides, and make their clothing. The priests brought grape- 
vines, ohves, fruits, and nuts from their old homes in Spain 
and Castile, and taught the Indians how to cultivate them 
in California soil. In time the missionaries had induced 
all the Indian families to come and dwell in pueblo com- 
munities about the missions, where the Spanish padres were 
monitors, socially, industrially, and religiously. When the 
missions were legally disestabhshed by order of the Mexi- 
can government, and the lands were partitioned to Mexican 
families, the herds and flocks sold, and the missionaries told 
to seek other walks of life, the Indian pueblos soon went to 
ruin. The Indians themselves wandered aimlessly away, 
settling in one place until driven to another by the white 
man. No one attempted to preserve their moral condition, 
and to the natural savage inclination for licentiousness was 
added the bad example of the low whites of the frontier of 
those days. 

My friends, I have outlined to you in briefest manner to- 
day the work of these grand old monks during a period of 
1 Bancroft, Pacific States ; Griswold, Spanish Missions. 



ADDRESSES 253 

fifteen hundred years. They saved agriculture when no- 
body else could save it. They practised it under a new 
life and new conditions when no one else dared undertake 
it. They advanced it along every line of theory and prac- 
tice, and when they perished they left a void which genera- 
tions have not filled. 



THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL 
COLLEGE 1 

In 1862, when the nation was struggUng with the most 
gigantic rebellion the world has ever seen, Congress, with 
a wise foresight seldom equaled, and a reversal of the old 
motto, "In time of peace prepare for war," calmly turned 
from the perplexing questions of the conflict and con- 
sidered and passed an act donating to the "several states 
and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit 
of agriculture and the mechanic arts, " public lands equal- 
ing in amount thirty thousand acres for each senator and 
representative then in Congress. In return for this dona- 
tion it stipulated two things: first, that the income of the 
fund derived from the sale of those lands should be held 
inviolably for purposes of instruction; and, second, that 
military instruction should be given, for which a regular 
army officer would be detailed by the United States govern- 
ment. Under the provisions of this endowment fifty-two 
colleges and schools have been established, either as inde- 
pendent organizations or as colleges of universities al- 
ready existing, with a teaching force of about 900, and an 
attendance of some 15,000 students. 

Let it be clearly understood at the outset that these 
are not exclusively agricultural colleges, but institutions 
designed for the benefit of the industrial classes. "With- 
out excluding any studies recognized as forming part of 

1 Reprinted from the New England Magazine, by permission of the 
publishers. 



ADDRESSES 255 

a liberal education, tliey are directed to teach such branches 
of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic 
arts, with the declared object of providing for those classes 
a liberal and practical education in the various pursuits and 
professions in life." It has resulted from this that, adapt- 
ing themselves to the individual needs of their respective 
states, some are exclusively agricultural, while others 
combine the agricultural with the mechanical. Three 
things are named in the organic law: agriculture, mechanic 
arts, and military tactics. The name "agricultural" used 
alone is therefore as misleading as that of "mechanical" 
or "military" would be. 

A quarter of a century has passed since the passage of 
the act, and sufficient time has now elapsed to show its 
merits or defects. The grant was originally based upon 
representation in population, resulting in very unequal 
endowments, the smaller states receiving a much smaller 
amount than the larger ones, while the expenses of main- 
tenance were about the same. Again, it was found that in- 
stitutions for teaching natural science required a much 
larger outlay for the "plant" and for their annual work 
than purely literary institutions. The scientific work re- 
quired to be done in the course of instruction and experi- 
ment demanded an extensive equipment in the way of 
laboratories, machine-shops, apparatus, farms to be used 
for purposes of experiment, cattle to be tested for their 
qualities, etc. In the twenty-five years past the field of 
science had so greatly enlarged, and the demands made 
upon the colleges so greatly increased, that none but the 
wealthier institutions could keep pace with them, or even 
measurably answer the requirements of the times. To 



256 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

provide then for this growing demand for instruction in the 
sciences, with special reference to their appHcations in the 
industries of Hfe, and to compensate for the inadequateness 
of the original endowment, Congress has this year [1890] 
passed an act, supplementing that of 1862, in further aid 
of the agricultural and mechanical colleges, granting an 
equal amount to each state. In doing this it has but fol- 
lowed the general tendency of the age. "The government 
of every leading country outside of the United States has 
recognized the necessity of providing on a large and gener- 
ous scale for the establishment and maintenance of scien- 
tific instruction of every grade, from the primary to the 
highest, and it is everywhere regarded as one of the first 
duties of statesmanship to see that the citizens of the 
country are not left behind in the race of modern com- 
petition for lack of any resource that science can bring to 
their aid. The margin of profit in the competition of 
modern industries is so small and so closely calculated 
that the best instructed people will be the winning people." 

The Massachusetts Agricultural College is located at 
Amherst. The act of incorporation by which it was es- 
tablished became a law April 29, 1863, while the accept- 
ance of the congressional grant was declared eleven days 
before. The College is under the control of a board of 
trustees, consisting of the Governor of the Commonwealth, 
the Secretary of the Board of Education, the Secretary of 
the Board of Agriculture, and the President of the Faculty, 
as ex-qfficio members, and fourteen others ai)pointed by the 
Governor for a term of seven years. The appointed mem- 
bers are divided into seven classes, so that two vacancies 
in their number regularly occur each year. The board was 



ADDRESSES 257 

organized November 8, 1863, with John A.Andrew as presi- 
dent, Allen W. Dodge as vice-president, and Charles 
L. Flint as secretary. The question of the location 
of the college was the occasion of considerable debate. 
A number of influential men, including Governor An- 
drew, Professor Agassiz, and President Thomas Hill, 
favored making the agricultural college a department of 
Harvard. The decision of the legislature and the trustees 
was in favor of a separate institution. It was characteris- 
tic of our great war governor, that no sooner was the de- 
cision of the legislature made in favor of a separate institu- 
tion, than, abandoning all his previous opinions, he entered 
heartily into this plan and cooperated to the extent of 
his power. Several towns offered to comply with the re- 
quirement of the legislature, that $75,000 for the erection 
of buildings be pledged before any portion of the pubhc 
funds should be given to the college. Amherst was finally 
selected. On the 29th of November, 1864, the Hon. Henry 
F. French was elected president of the College. He was 
a man thoroughly identified with agricultural pursuits, 
had written a work on drainage, and was widely known 
by his contributions to the different journals. It was felt 
that his knowledge of the subject and his large experience 
in men and affairs ensured his success; but he failed to 
meet the demands of the situation; and after two years, a 
difference of opinion having arisen between himself and 
the trustees as to the proper site for the college buildings, 
he resigned. Ill luck seemed destined to pursue the College 
at its founding; for his successor. Professor Paul A. Chad- 
bourne, for many years an enthusiastic and successful 
instructor in the natural sciences at Williams College, 



258 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

was compelled to resign in a few months, by reason of ill- 
health. The trustees then elected Professor William S. 
Clark, who had been for years interested in the movement 
for agriciilLural education, and who was at that time 
filling the chair of chemistry and botany in Amherst Col- 
lege. He was a man of singular enthusiasm and energy, and 
to him more than any one else the College owes the meas- 
ure of success it has attained. The course of study marked 
out by him has been substantially followed ever since. 
Resolved on having the best, he quickly gathered about 
him a cori)s of instructors that made the C-oUege at once 
leap inlo ])rominence; and the series of novel experiments 
he coiuhulod relating to the circulation of sap in plants 
and the cxi)ansi\'e force exerted by the vegetable cell in 
its growth, caused the gifted Agassiz to remark that if the 
College had done notliing else, this alone was sudicient to 
compensate the state for all its outlay. The sfjuash he 
had selected for observation, in its iron harness, lifting 
five thousand pounds before it had ceased to grow, excited 
attention far and wide, and was visited by lliousands.' 
Rut his best work was as an educator. Bringing to the 
lecture-room that intense enthusiasm and personal mag- 
netism so characteristic of the man, he quickly established 
a bond of symiiathy between teacher and scholar that 
was nvxcv broken. The same brilliant qualities that at- 
tracted men in the outside world made themselves felt 
in his loacliiiig. The dry details of science were enlivened 
by the light play of his fancy, and the charming method of 
his teaching seldom failed to arouse the dullest intellect. 
The College was opened to receive students on the 2d 
» See College Report, 1875. 



ADDRESSES 259 

of October, 1867, and forty-seven students were admitted 
before the close of the first term. Never will the writer of 
this article forget the remark of President Clark, as we 
drove over together, on the opening day, to the i)lace of 
examination : " I do not know of a single man that is coming 
to-day, but I believe the heart of the old Bay State will 
beat true to the opportunity presented it." And when we 
found twenty-seven young men awaiting the ordeal, his 
joy knew no bounds, and I think he was inclined to admit 
the whole number at once, withour further trial. During 
his administration the perpetual fund for the maintenance 
of the College was largely increased by the generosity of 
the state, new buildings were erected, and the faculty was 
enlarged. The College also entered into an agreement to 
represent the agricultural department of Boston Univer- 
sity, the matriculants of the one being eligible to take 
the diploma of the other. 

The buildings of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 
lege at the present time include a laboratory, botanic 
museum, two plant-houses, dormitories containing reci- 
tation-rooms, a chapel-library building, club-house, farm- 
house with barn and sheds, drill-hall, and five dwelling 
houses, representing a total value of about $200,000. 
The farm consists of 384 acres, some eighty acres of 
which are set off for experimental purposes, and the rest 
divided between cultivated, grass, and wood-land. It is lo- 
cated on the eastern water-shed of the Connecticut River, 
bounded west by a tributary of that stream, with a rivu- 
let running through it from southeast to northwest, empty- 
ing into the tributary. The land adjacent to these streams 
is rolling and high enough to give good drainage; the 



260 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

soil, a heavy, sandy loam, with underlying clay. The east- 
ern and highest part of the farm is drift, covered with 
gravelly loam, with occasional pockets of heaVy, sandy 
loam. Much of this part of the farm has a substratum of 
hard pan. In short, the soil does not materially differ from 
that found in other parts of the state, always excepting 
such as is pecuHar to particular localities, as the sand of 
Cape Cod, etc. Seventy to eighty head of live stock are 
kept, including representatives of Ayrshires, Guernseys, 
Holstein-Friesians, Jerseys, Shorthorns, Percherons, South- 
down sheep, and small Yorkshire swine. 

While all the departments are fairly well equipped, the 
agricultural and horticultural, as would naturally be ex- 
pected, are best supplied, and no pains are spared to prac- 
tically drive home the teachings of the recitation-room. 
As the agricultural department has its barns and different 
breeds of cattle, its labor-saving implements and silos, so 
the horticultural has its green-houses and nurseries, its 
herbaria and models. Orchards of fifteen to twenty acres, 
containing all the standard varieties of small and large 
fruits, lie in immediate proximity, and for further prac- 
tical study there is a vineyard containing thirty to forty 
varieties of fully tested grapes; a nursery of 30,000 to 
40,000 trees, shrubs, and vines in various stages of 
growth; a market garden; and a grove covering several 
acres, affording ample opportunity for observations in 
practical forestry. Methods of planting, training, and 
pruning, budding, layering and grafting, gathering and 
packing fruits are taught by field exercises, the students 
doing a large part of the work. The botanical department, 
naturally joined with the horticultural, is in like manner 



ADDRESSES 261 

well supplied. In the museum is the Knowlton herbarium, 
collected by W. W. Denslow of New York, consisting 
of over 15,000 species of plants from all parts of 
the world; a collection of models of nearly all the leading 
varieties of apples and pears; hundreds of sections of wood, 
cut so as to show their individual structure; specimens of 
abnormal and peculiar forms of stems, fruits, and vege- 
tables ; together with many specimens and models prepared 
for illustrating the growth and structure of plants. Sec- 
tions of trees joined together like the Siamese twins stand 
side by side, with the "giant squash" in its iron harness, 
while along the walls are suspended gigantic specimens of 
marine algse. For use in the lecture-rooms are diagrams and 
charts containing over 3,000 figures, illustrating structural 
and systematic botany; and immediately adjacent is the 
laboratory fitted up with tables and compound microscopes, 
where the students engage in practical study of the growth 
and structure of the common plants cultivated in the green- 
house and the garden or on the farm. Valuable adjuncts to 
the recitation-room are the conservatories containing a 
large collection of tropical productions, together with all 
the leading plants used for house culture, cut flowers, and 
outdoor ornamentation. The same practical work is en- 
gaged in here, and the student is expected to make himself 
familiar with the different methods of propagating, hybrid- 
izing, and cultivating useful and ornamental plants. All 
kinds of garden and farm-garden crops are grown in this 
department, special attention being given to the treatment 
of market-garden crops, the selection of varieties, and the 
growth of seed. 

Located on the college grounds are two experiment 



262 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

stations, the one established and maintained by the state, 
the other by the United States government, entitled the 
Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultm-al College.^ The former is under a board of control 
made up of eleven members, four of whom are members 
ex officio, and the rest elected respectively by the Board 
of Agriculture, the Massachusetts State Horticultural 
Society, the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agri- 
culture, the trustees of the Agricultural College, and the 
State Grange, to represent their organizations. The latter 
forms a department of the college, controlled by its trus- 
tees and subject to their direction. Each is distinct from 
the other in its organization and work. The Hatch Experi- 
ment Station devotes itself to the investigation of meteoro- 
logical phenomena as affecting plant growth, economic 
entomology, and the practical questions of every kind 
arising in horticulture and agriculture, while the state 
station turns its attention to questions of analysis, food 
rations, diseases of plants, and the hke. With its accus- 
tomed liberality the state has erected and equipped, at an 
expense of about $30,000, a fine laboratory, and a build- 
ing with a glass house attached, to be used exclusively for 
the investigation of such diseases as the smut, the mildew, 
and the scab. This station has been in existence about 
eight years, and has recently issued its seventh annual re- 
port, filled with information of value to the farmer. 

The Hatch Experiment Station is of more recent origin, 
being created by an act of Congress, passed February 25, 
1887, appropriating $15,000 annually to each state and 

1 The two Experiment Stations were united in 1895, after this paper 
was printed. 



ADDRESSES 263 

territory for the purpose of establishing and maintaining 
an experiment department in connection with the colleges 
of agriculture and the mechanic arts, to be known and 
designated as an "agricultural experiment station." 

Under the provisions of this act the station at Amherst 
was organized, March 2, 1888, with four departments, — 
the agricultural, horticultural, entomological, and mete- 
orological. By an arrangement with the state station all 
questions of a chemical nature are referred to it for in- 
vestigation, thereby saving the expense of erecting and 
equipping another laboratory. Each department has a 
building of its own allotted exclusively to its own use. In 
the meteorological department a full set of self-recording 
instruments has been placed, where daily and hourly ob- 
servations of all meteorological phenomena are taken and 
kept. The horticultural department has its green-houses, 
in which tests of fertilizers under glass are made, and where 
experimentation is continued throughout the year. The 
agricultural department has its barn fitted up in the most 
approved way for conducting tests in feeding, or investi- 
gating questions pertaining to the dairy. The entomologi- 
cal department has its insectary, where plants are grown 
and the life-histories of their insect enemies studied, while 
at the same time trial is being made of the best methods 
of applying different insecticides. The general policy of the 
station has been to furnish information on such subjects 
as were attracting the attention of the public, and to in- 
vestigate questions of practical importance. It issues regu- 
lar quarterly bulletins, and special ones, as occasion seems 
to demand; thus, when the gypsy moth appeared in the 
eastern part of the state a special illustrated bulletin, 



264 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

describing the insect, its destructive habits, and the best 
remedies for combatting it, was prepared and sent to every 
tax-payer in the infested district and the adjacent towns. 
All these bulletins are sent free to each newspaj[)er in the 
state, and to such residents engaged in farming as may 
request the same. The College for many years prior to the 
establishment of these stations had been carrying on ex- 
periments in a limited way, and the investigations of 
Goessmann, Stockbridge, Maynard, and Clark have been 
of inmiense value to the farmers of the state, and are re- 
cognized throughout the country. 

We are told that "agriculture is not a patchwork of 
all the natural sciences, but is itself a vast subject upon 
which the various natural sciences shed their rays of 
light," and that the teacher of agriculture can do little 
more than indicate the points of contact between his 
own great subject and the sciences which surround it, 
leaving the explanations to those into whose domains they 
properly fall. With this broad definition of agriculture, — 
itself a science, complete in itself, yet touching all sciences 
and all branches of knowledge, — and taking as our guide 
the law that the teacher of agriculture can but indicate 
these points of contact and leave to others their explana- 
tion, we have endeavored to rear our superstructure of 
agricultural education: agriculture, our foundation; bot- 
any, chemistry, veterinary, and mathematics, our four 
corner-stones; while the walls arcbuilt high with horti- 
culture, market-gardening, and forestry on the one side, 
physiology, etymology, and the comparative anatomy of 
the domestic animals on the second, mechanics, physics, 
and meteorology on the third, and a study of the English 



ADDRESSES ^5 

language, political economy, and constitutional history on 
the fourth. These separate lines of study, each distinct 
in itself, yet each aiding in the interpretation or solution 
of the difficult problems met with, require a four-year 
course. They proceed hand in hand, and the completion 
of a study in one department is coincident with that in 
another. Mutual help is the watchword; each for all and 
all for each, in the laying broad and deep the foundation, 
and building up the solid structure. Thus, when the rela- 
tions of the weather — of heat, air, moisture — to farming 
are considered, on the botanical side are being studied 
the structure of the plant, its organs, the relations of its 
root-system to soil and moisture; on the chemical, the 
elements important in an agricultural point of view and 
their properties; and on the mathematical, such algebra 
and geometry as will lead to practical work in drainage and 
surveying. So, too, when soils and tillage are being con- 
sidered, are studied in like manner those plants beneficial 
or injurious to man, general geology, and the insects 
hurtful or otherwise to the crops. In short, the effort is 
made to have each course supplement and harmonize 
with the other, and the different studies so fit into each 
other as to make one rounded whole. But let it be under- 
stood that while the greatest effort and the largest ex- 
pense have been bestowed upon the agricultural depart- 
ment, the authorities of the College entirely disclaim any 
attempt to narrow its graduates down to a choice of that 
profession alone. The opportunity for acquiring a valu- 
able education, which shall fit one for the practical duties of 
life, is open to all, and all are welcomed, whatever the pro- 
fession they may ultimately pursue. Believing that the 



266 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

training of her young men in all that pertains to the use 
of arms, in the duties of the officer in handling and in- 
structing troops, and in the construction of fortifications, 
would be of immense value to the commonwealth, the state 
has made ample provision for this department. A fine 
drill hall and armory have been erected, and arms and 
equipments issued. The United States details one of its 
officers for duty at the College, who is reckoned as one of 
the faculty, and who is responsible for the efficiency and 
good order of the department. 

It will have been noticed that in the course of instruc- 
tion no mention is made of the mechanic arts. At the time 
of the legislative acceptance of the national grant the 
Institute of Technology in Boston was already established, 
and it was deemed wiser to extend aid to it than to start 
a new school. Accordingly, one third of the income de- 
rived from the maintenance fund of the United States has 
ever since been annually paid over to it from the treasury 
of the commonwealth. This action of the legislature re- 
lieves the College from the necessity of giving instruction 
in that department, and has resulted in making the Col- 
lege more purely agricultural than any other in the coun- 
try. Realizing the necessity of providing a higher educa- 
tion within the reach of those in moderate or straitened 
circumstances, the state has thrown wide the doors of its 
College and furnished every facility for acquiring such 
education at a minimum cost. Its tuition has been made 
practically free, and by the establishment of a labor fund, 
out of which a portion of the expenses can be paid in hon- 
est work, it has brought within the reach of a class of de- 
serving young men forming the best possible material for 



ADDRESSES 267 

manhood and citizenship an education obtainable in no 
other way. 

The College has had many earnest friends, but it has also 
encountered much opposition. The importance of a tech- 
nical education has until recently been hardly appreciated 
by the farmers of the state. The rapidity with which the 
native population has emigrated to the western states, 
leaving their farms in the hands of an alien population, 
has been a factor of great importance in this connection. 
In 1870 a determined attempt was made to stop all further 
grants of money from the state; and several years later it 
was proposed to make the Agricultural College a depart- 
ment of Amherst College. The only result of these attempts, 
however, has been to establish it on a firmer basis than 
ever, and give to it renewed life and vigor. 



RELATION OF THE STATE BOARD OF 
A(;iM(UrLTl[HE TO THE MASSACIIU- 
SirnS ACJRKJMLTURAL COi.LECJE^ 

Many (■rnlurics ago the Aposllo IVlcr, wriling to his 
followers, said: "I stir up your pure iniiicls hy way of re- 
menibranee"; and centuries before the Ajuxstle Peter lived 
il, hiul IxMMi written: " Remember the days of old; ask thy 
father and he will show thee; tliy ehlers and they will tell 
thee." iL is lilting, Iherefore, that al the dose of this first 
half-century of its existence the Board of Agriculture should 
hold its day of reineinltnince, and, calling upon ils father 
to show them and ils elders to tell then>, shonld gather up 
the njcniories of the past and transmit them to their child- 
ren lo hold and guard forever. My mission, llicn, to-day 
is to stir up your |)nrc minds by recalling l<> yonr remem- 
brance the relation of this iioard lo agricidlnral education, 
and more particularly to its college of agricullnrc. Thirty- 
nine years, counting from the charter of this College, is the 
measure of ils span, and (Nich year has brought with it some 
expression of the IJoard's thoughtful care. Even before its 
establislmunit as a Board we find thetrustees of the Norfolk 
Agricnilural Sociely voting that ils "|)resident and secre- 
laries be a commillxH' to mature and ado])!, a j)la,n for a 
convention of delegates from the various agricultural socie- 
ties of the ( ■onuiionweallh, to be holdcn at some convenient 
time and places the object of which shall be to concert 

• Addn^ss delivered at tlio fiftieth anniversary meeting of the Massa- 
cliiisells State Hoard of Agriculture, at IJoston. July 22, 1902. 



ADDRESSES 269 

measures for their mutual advantage, and for the promotion 
of the cause of agricullural educuliou." At tlie uioniing 
session of that couvwiLioii, held at the Slate House, March 
20, 1851, the i)resideiit, Marshall P. Wilder, announcing the 
subjects for discussion, spoke as follows: "It is also to be 
hoped that thecause of agricultural edu(;ation, now about to 
receive the consideration of tlieJiegislature,will not In; over- 
looked in the deliberations of this body; and, if it Ix; the 
opinion of this convention that agriculture may be i)ro- 
moted by the application of science, that such a sentiment 
may be expressed in terms so explicit as not to be misunder- 
stood, and that the aid of government may be solicited for 
this pur[)ose." At the afternoon session Mr. Sewall of Med- 
field, from the business coniniittee, presented a i)reamble 
and resolutions, the fourth, fifth, and eighth of which bear 
directly upon the subject now under consideration: — 

Resolved (4), That agricultural schools having been found, 
by the experience of other nations, efficient means in pro- 
moting the cause of agricultural education, which is so es- 
sential to the j)rosperity of farmers and to the welfare of 
communities, it becomes at once the duty and policy of the 
Commonwealth to establish and maintain such institutions 
for the benefit of all its irdiabitants. 

Resolved (5), That the several jdans for an agricultural 
school, recently reported by the Board of Commissioners 
appointed for that i)uq)ose, are worthy the j)rofonn(l con- 
sideration of the [>eople of Massachusetts and their repre- 
sentatives in the General Court, as indicating the feasi- 
bility and practicability of an establishment worthy that 
exalted character which the State has secured by the en- 



270 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

dowment of kindred institutions, designed, like these, for 
the diffusion of useful knowledge among the people. 

Resolved (8), That the convention respectfully suggests 
to the Legislature the propriety and expediency of reserving 
the entire proceeds of the sales of the public lands of the 
Commonwealth — from and after the period when the 
common-school fund shall have reached the maximum 
fixed by the act of 1834 — for purposes of education and 
charity, with a view to extending that aid and encourage- 
ment to a system of agricultural education, which the im- 
portance of the subject so imperiously demands. 

The discussion over the different resolutions was, as the 
faithful chronicler puts it, continued, protracted, and at 
times vigorous. It was carried over into the evening session, 
and among those taking part we find the names of Marshall 
P. Wilder, Governor Boutwell, President Hitchcock of 
Amherst College, Professor Fowler of the same institution. 
Judge Mack of Salem, and William Buckminster, editor 
of the "Massachusetts Ploughman." 

John Brooks of Princeton appears to have been the only 
opponent. He said : "This resolution seems to squint toward 
a college. If it has that tendency I shall be opposed to it, 
for I do not believe that the farmers are prepared to spend 
money in instituting a college. ... As for lecturing to the 
people, I doubt whether that is advantageous, for the very 
best reason to my mind in the world, — that the lecturer 
will not know what to say; that he has no data on which 
to make out any speech, because science, as I understand 
it, is based upon facts. What facts has this commissioner 
that are applicable to agriculture in this State.'' I say, sir. 



ADDRESSES 271 

generally speaking, no fact. And why? Because the science 
of agriculture has not yet grown up in this country." 

Richard Bagg, Jr., of Springfield, closed some breezy re- 
marks by exclaiming: "Let us remember that if the State 
provide the means and appliances for a scientific course of 
agricultural study, the young man must *wake up from 
his drowsy nap,' and qualify himself 'to go up higher.'" 

The fourth and fifth resolutions were adopted, but we 
fail to learn the fate of the eighth, having reference to re- 
serving the entire proceeds of the sale of public lands for 
purposes of education and charity. 

At the first meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Agri- 
culture, September 3, 1851, Marshall P. Wilder, WilUam 
C. Fowler, John W. Proctor, J. H. W. Page, and S. Reed 
were chosen a committee to report on the subject of agri- 
cultural education and the best measures to be adopted for 
the encouragement of such education. The report of this 
committee was presented at the second meeting of the 
Board on January 14, 1852. It was discussed at this 
meeting, and also at the third meeting of the Board, on 
February 3, 1852, when it was adopted. This report, 
signed by Marshall P. Wilder as chairman, resolves: "That 
Massachusetts, by an enlightened policy and wise legisla- 
tion, has rendered her system of education worthy of her 
exalted reputation, and that this Board most earnestly 
desire her to complete that system by providing kindred 
institutions for the scientific education of the farmer, upon 
whom is levied so large a share of the taxes for the support 
of governmental and philanthropic objects; that it is the 
duty, as well as the interest of the State, to aid in furnish- 
ing the means for such an education; and that a thorough 



272 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

systematic course of education is as necessary to prepare 
the cultivator of the soil for preeminence in his calling, as to 
secure excellence in any of the schools of science or art." 
These are no uncertain words, and fittingly echo the fer- 
vent hope of Mr. Wilder in his opening remarks, "that, if 
it be the opinion of this convention that agriculture may be 
promoted by the application of science, such a sentiment 
may be expressed in terms so explicit as not to be mis- 
understood." 

There seems to have been at this time a general awaken- 
ing to the necessities of an agricultural education. Henry 
L. Dawes, in an address on agricultural education before 
the Housatonic Agricultural Society in 1853, after enumer- 
ating the obstacles to be encountered by the farmer in the 
discharge of the grand, crowning duty of the day, — the 
regeneration of the soil of Massachusetts, — said: "And the 
means not now within his reach, that shall enable him to 
triumph over them in this great attainment, are the neces- 
sities of the farmers of this Commonwealth. The means 
lie in an agricultural education. And for their accomphsh- 
ment let Massachusetts establish an agricultural school, 
where will be taught the principles of the science and their 
application to the art of agriculture; and let the doors of 
knowledge be opened wide to all the sons of her soil, — not 
for the study of the speculative and mysterious, but of the 
practical and useful." 

The Board of Agriculture led the way in this popular 
movement; and we find that at its third meeting, held 
September 7, 1852, a committee was appointed to consider 
the expediency of preparing a manual on agriculture for the 
use of common schools. 



ADDRESSES 273 

Again, at a meeting held three years later, January 16, 
1856, a committee previously appointed to consider and 
report to the Board what further measures, if any, were 
needed to subserve the cause of agriculture in this Com- 
monwealth, made the following report, which was ac- 
cepted: — 

Having given the subject their careful consideration, the 
committee are of the opinion that nothing would be better 
calculated to advance the cause of agriculture and foster 
and direct the growing interest therein throughout the com- 
munity at large, than the immediate establishment of an 
experimental farm, and, as soon as the funds shall permit, 
of an agricultural school in connection therewith, where 
both the science and the practice of farming may be taught 
in all their departments. 

Your committee do not propose to set forth in detail 
the many reasons which have led them to this conclusion, 
but they will be pardoned in suggesting one or two of the 
most important : — 

First. There is not at the present time, to the knowledge 
of your committee, any society or board existing in the 
Commonwealth authorized by act of the Legislature to 
hold funds to be applied exclusively to the advancement of 
scientific and practical agriculture or the diffusion of know- 
ledge connected with riu-al economy. 

Secondly. In the opinion of your committee, the time 
has arrived when the wants of the community demand 
something of this kind; a time when the learned profes- 
sions seem more than full; when the attention of our citi- 
zens, and in particular of our young men, is being more than 



274 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

ever directed to the cultivation of the soil; and when many 
both wealthy and liberal men in the Commonwealth are 
holding out the inducement of an ample supply of funds in 
furtherance of such an undertaking. 

Influenced by these considerations, among many others, 
your committee respectfully recommend that a committee 
be chosen by this Board to apply to the present Legislature 
for an act authorizing the formation of a Board of Trustees, 
capable of holding funds to be applied in establishing an 
experimental farm and agricultural school connected with 
it, designed to furnish instruction in every branch of rural 
economy, theoretical and practical. 

B. V. French. 

Seth Sprague. 

John Brooks. 

Acting on the recommendation in the above report, the 
Board appointed Messrs. French, Newell, Sprague, Wilder, 
and Secretary Flint a committee; and, as a result of this 
action, the Legislature incorporated the Massachusetts 
School of Agriculture, but no institution was established. 

At a meeting of the Board of Agriculture, October 15, 
1856, Messrs. John C. Bartlett, Benjamin V. French and 
Secretary Flint were appointed a committee to take into 
consideration the propriety of having a text-book on agri- 
culture, prepared under the sanction of the Board. 

At the annual meeting, January 5, 1860, Mr. Richard S. 
Fay oflfered the following resolution, which was adopted : — 

Resolved, as the opinion of this Board, that a system of 
agricultural education should be adopted and form a part 
of the educational system of the State. 



ADDRESSES 275 

Following the adoption of this resolution, the Board 
chose by ballot Messrs. Simon Brown, Richard S. Fay and 
Marshall P. Wilder a committee to prepare a plan for 
carrying it into effect, and to report the same to the Board 
for further action. 

At a later meeting, held February 2, 1860, Dr. George 
B. Loring offered the following resolutions, which were 
adopted : — 

Resold ed. That the committee on agricultural education 
be and hereby are authorized to prepare an elementary 
manual of agriculture for the use of our common schools, 
to be submitted to this Board for approval. 

Resolved, That the said committee be requested to cause 
to be introduced the aforesaid manual, when approved by 
this Board, into the common schools of Massachusetts, in 
the manner provided for the introduction of school books 
by the laws of the Commonwealth; and that said committee 
be authorized to apply to the Legislature for the passage 
of an act for the accomplishment of this object. 

At a meeting held January 10, 1861, on motion of Mr. 
Fay, it was 

Voted, That the committee on the manual be authorized 
to accept a proposition from Mr. Emerson and Mr. Flint, 
securing to them the copyright of the manual as a compen- 
sation for their services in preparing the book, upon such 
terms as to price of the work to be furnished to public 
schools, farmers' clubs and agricultural associations in 
Massachusetts as may be agreed upon by said committee. 



276 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

At a meeting of the Board, January 25, 1861, Colonel 
Wilder presented the following resolution, which was unan- 
imously adopted : — 

Resolved, That this Board approve of the Manual of 
Agriculture, submitted by its authors, Messrs. Geo. B. 
Emerson and Charles L, Flint, and recommend its publica- 
tion by those gentlemen as a work well adapted for use in 
the schools of Massachusetts. 

And at a meeting of the Board, January 17, 1862, on 
motion of Mr. James S. Grinnell, it was 

Resolved, That a committee of three, consisting of Messrs. 
Joseph White, Charles C. Sewall, and Henry H. Peters, be 
requested to represent the merits of the Manual of Agri- 
culture to the committee of the Legislature on education, 
on the order "To consider the expediency of including the 
elements of agriculture among the branches to be taught in 
all the public schools in which the school committee deem 
it expedient." 

As a result of this action, the Legislature of 1862, by 
Chapter 7, provided that "agriculture shall be taught, by 
lectures or otherwise, in all the public schools in which the 
school committee deem it expedient." 

But it must not be imagined for a moment that all was 
plain sailing. There were to be found, even as now, those 
who sneered at book knowledge, or doubted the expediency 
of any such measure. Hon. Amasa Walker did not hesitate 
to say, in an address before the Worcester South Agricul- 
tural Society: "Farmers are the great mass of the people, 



ADDRESSES 277 

and how can they, from their very numbers, be educated at 
college? And then the expense could never be encountered 
by the farming interest, nor could the sons be spared from 
the farms, nor would it be desirable to so break up their 
habits as farmers as to put them under one, two or more 
years' tuition at college. Besides, colleges are made for 
professional men, not for the people, and their mission 
never was and never will be to educate the million." Mr. 
Jackson said that if a boy learned to read, write, cipher, and 
spell, he would make an excellent farmer. What need of 
science? The good old way of his fathers was sufficient. 
It was only the old story told by George Eliot in the "Mill 
on the Floss," and it is Farmer John who speaks: "What 
I want," said he, "is to give Tom a good eddication, — an 
eddication as 'ud be bread for him. That was what I was 
thinking of when I gave notice for him to leave the academy 
at Lady Day. I mean to put him to a downright good 
school at midsummer. The two years at th' academy 'ud 
ha' done well enough, if I 'd meant to ha' made a farmer of 
him, for he 's had a fine sight more schoolin' nor ever I got. 
All the learnin' my father ever paid for was a bit o' birch at 
one end and the alphabet at the other." 

And even our good Governor, who has charmed us this 
morning with his reminiscences of the past, is reported as 
saying that all this matter of agricultural education was 
mere nonsense, — that he had always said that the agri- 
cultural college would be a failure; that it could not succeed 
in the nature of things, for as soon as you educated a boy, 
he would leave the farm. Consequently, the conclusion he 
came to was, that all the education a farmer got he would 
have to get at the tail of a plough. 



278 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

At the very first intimation of a movement in the national 
House of Representatives, looking towards the establish- 
ment of colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the me- 
chanic arts, the Board of Agriculture promptly placed 
itself on record. At a meeting held April 7, 1858, it was 

Resolved, That this Board do most heartily approve of the 
objects of a bill presented in the House of Representatives 
in Congress, December 14, 1857, by Hon. Justin S. Morrill 
of Vermont, requesting Congress to donate pubhc lands to 
each State and Territory which may provide colleges for 
the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts; and that 
our Senators and Representatives in Congress be requested 
to render their best aid in securing the passage of said bill 
into a law; and that our secretary be requested to serve 
each of our Senators and Representatives with a copy of 
the above. 

At a meeting of the Board, January 8, 1861, Mr. Levi 
Stockbridge of Hadley offered the following resolution: — 

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Board, the time has 
arrived for the inauguration of measures tending to the es- 
tablishment of an agricultural school of high grade under 
the patronage of the Commonwealth. 

At a meeting held the 25th of the same month, on motion 
of Mr. James S. Grinnell of Greenfield, it was 

Resolved, That this Board, believing that the establish- 
ment of an agricultural school would advance the interests 



ADDRESSES 279 

of agriculture in this Commonwealth, is disposed to give 
its influence to any well-directed plan for such a school. 

Following this resolution, Messrs. Marshall P. Wilder, 
Freeman Walker, William S. Clark, Levi Stockbridge, and 
Charles C. Sewall were chosen a committee "to cooperate 
at their discretion with any men or body of men who may 
have any plan for an agricultural school, and to present and 
report their proceedings at the next meeting of the Board." 

At a meeting held February 27, 1863, Colonel Wilder 
made a statement of the doings of the above committee. 
After some discussion, Dr. George B. Loring presented the 
following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : — 

Resolved, That, in the opinion of the State Board of Agri- 
culture, the grant of land made by Congress to the several 
States for the establishment of colleges for instruction in 
agriculture and the mechanic arts is designed expressly for 
the general diffusion of useful knowledge in these two 
branches among the people. 

Resolved, That the Legislature is hereby respectfully re- 
quested to make such disposition of the grant as will en- 
able the Board of Agriculture, as immediately representing 
the farming interests of the Commonwealth, to enlarge its 
sphere of usefulness by exercising a supervision over the 
employment of the funds arising from the grant, for the 
purpose of securing the confidence of the agricultural com- 
munity, and of conducting such a scheme as will operate 
for the benefit of those engaged in this business. 

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Board, the interests 
of the State and intentions of Congress require that the 



280 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

grant should be principally devoted to the establishment 
of an educational institution for the practical and scientific 
study of .•i|i,ri('ulturc and for the iiislruction of youths who 
intend Lo follow industrial pursuits, and that the institu- 
tion should not be immediately connected with any insti- 
tution established for other i)urj)oses. 

Resolved, That a con)inittec of five be a])pointed to 
present these resolutions Lo the conuuiLLee of the Legisla- 
ture having the subject under consideration, and to express 
the views of Ihis Board upon the proper disposition of the 
Congrcsssional grant. 

The cominittee provided for in the last resolution was 
constituted by Ihe appointment of Messrs. Marshall P. 
Wilder, J'aoli LaLlirop, (loorge J5. Loring, S. IJ. IMiinney, 
John Brooks, Henry Colt, and Charles G. Davis. 

At it niooling bold Jauuary 30, ISfW, Dr. Loriug offered 
the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: 

Resolved, That the agricultural College should maintain 
an intimate relation to the agricultural socielios and the 
farmers of the ('ommouweallh, as a uieans of disseminating 
practical in fornialion and affording the best means of edu- 
cating young men for llie business of farming. 

Resolved, That, for this i)urpose, every effort should be 
made to connect the State Board of Agriculture with the 
government of tiie college, for the express object of bringing 
the agricultural societies into close connection with that 
instilulion, and as the most useful melliod of combining all 
the efforts of the Commonwealth in one system of practical 
agricultural education. 



ADDRESSES 281 

From this time on wc find the Board taking the most 
active interest in Lhe estabHshment of the College, provid- 
ing in every i)ossil)le way for its welfare, and sec^kiiig to 
enter into a closer and more intimate union. We can do 
little more than briefly enumerate these continued expres- 
sions of its good-will. 

We find it in ISOO the autiior of an a{;t constitutifig the 
president of the (Joliege a member ex ojjido of the Hoard; 
and further providing that it should be constituted into a 
Board of Overseers over the ('ollegc, but without powers 
to control the action of its trustees or to negativ<; their 
powers and duties. In this same act the Board was 
authorized to locate its cabinet and library at the College, 
and to hold its stated meetings there. 

We next find it in 1807 urging upon the agricultural 
societies to establish and maintain at least one scholarshi]) 
at the College. As a result of this effort, we find in 18(59 
eighteen of these societies suf)i)orting a scholarship, while 
the Massachusetts held itself responsible for three and the 
Essex and the Plymouth each two. At this same time it 
advocat(;d the ])roi)osal that each agricultural soci<^ty should 
set aside one sixth of the moni(^s granted to it by the; State 
as a fund towards the sup[)ortof a j)rofessor at the College, 
whose duty it should be to carry out such experiments as 
the Board might from time to time direct. A circular was 
sent out to each of the thirty agricultural societies, asking 
whether it would consent to such setting aside of one sixth 
of its stati^l income. This j)roposition, however, failed to 
go into effect; and a resolution was then adopted stating 
that it was desirable that the secretary of the Board should 
be located at the College and become a professor, i)erforming 



282 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

such professional duties as the trustees might direct, and 
receiving a competent sahiry from the Commonwealth. 
This resolution was reconsidered the next year, and the fol- 
lowing resolution adopted: "That Charles L. Flint, the 
secretary of this Board, be authorized to deliver a course of 
lectures at the Agricultural College, or to discharge such 
duties connected with the instruction of the students at that 
institution, as the trustees may assign to him, provided 
that such services do not conflict with his duties as secre- 
tary aforesaid." 

Under this resolve Mr. Flint lectured at the College for 
four successive years, his name being carried on the cata- 
logue as lecturer on dairy-farming. 

Again in 1875 we find the Board renewing its efforts to 
induce the several agricultural societies to maintain each a 
scholarship at the college, and to secure the attendance of 
one or more students from the district covered by their 
organizations. 

In all matters of financial aid the Board, by direct effort 
and petition to the General Court, was a powerful support 
to the trustees. This was particularly manifest in the years 
18G8, 18G9, 1870, 1877, 1882, and 1899. 

When, in 1880, Governor Talbot and the Council ad- 
vocated the union of Amherst College and the Massachu- 
setts Agricultural College, it was the Board which, under 
the leadership of Benjamin P. Ware of Marblehead, drew 
up a series of resolutions embodying its adverse feeling; 
and again in 1881 it was the Board which directed its 
secretary to petition the Legislature to establish an experi- 
ment station at the College. In short, wherever we look we 
find the Board of Agriculture at the front, moulding public 



ADDRESSES 283 

opinion and leading the way. For what it has purposed and 
tried to do, for what it has done in the past, for what it will 
do in the future, permit me, in the name of the College 
I rei)resent, to express my grateful ai)i)reciation. With 
the Board for its councillors and overseers, its future is 
secured. 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION 
OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL COL- 
LEGES AND EXPERIMENT STATIONS^ 

Gentlemen or the Association: — The great apostle 
of German materialism was wont to say in his lectures: 
"Miracles, gentlemen, are like pills, to be swallowed, not 
chewed." He was dealing with the supernatural and what 
is contrary to natural law. But in the vast realm of Nature 
and the investigation of her phenomena, the miracles daily 
performed before our eyes can not be carelessly disposed 
of in a moment, swallowed without consideration. The un- 
rolling of the leaf, the budding of the flower, the maturing 
of the perfect fruit, the wonderful adaptation of parts to 
specific ends, the differentiation of various organs, as the 
filaments of certain plants for tactile organs, the lobes for 
capturing insects, and the glands of secretion and absorp- 
tion — all these require the most careful and patient 
observation. All natural phenomena have their physical 
and natural causes, and to find out these underlying 
causes is often a morsel of the toughest kind, to be turned 
and returned, again and again, before the final act of 
deglutition takes place and we are prepared to hazard 
an opinion. And these adaptations of nature are as 
countless as the sands upon the shore, each one in itself 

' Address delivered at Washington, D.C., August 12, 1891, on taking 
the chair as President of the Association. 



ADDRESSES 285 

a wonderful physical miracle, only to be interpreted by 
the patient worker. 

We are tempted to exclaim in the words of the magic song, 
where Mephistopheles draws wine out of the table in Auer- 
bach's cellar: — 

Wine is grapes and grapes are wood, 
The wooden board yields wine as good. 
It is but a deeper glance 
Into Nature's countenance. 
All is plain to him who saith, 
"Lift the veil and look beneath. 
And behold," the wise man saith, 
" Miracles if you have faith." 

The rapt seer, looking over the broad field, exclaimed: 
"Animate and inanimate creation are mountainous and 
glittering with them. Down into the regions of the in- 
finitely small, whither only the most searching microscopes 
carry the sight; up into the regions of the infinitely large, 
whither only mightiest telescopes lift our struggling vision; 
among the mechanisms of the atomic hosts that people 
a single leaf and among the mechanisms of those swarming 
celestial empires whose starry banners sweep our mighty 
skies, it is everywhere the same" — exquisite adaptations 
crowding exquisite adaptations; means so exquisitely 
adapted to the end that every part stands in the most per- 
fect balance and adjustment to the other. What more per- 
fect illustration of this correlation of parts can be pre- 
sented than in the family of the Vandece, where the related 
positions and shapes of the parts — the friction, viscidity, 
elastic and hygrometric movements, all nicely related to 
one another — come into play. Yet all these appliances are 
subordinated to the aid of insects; for when the retreating 



286 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

insect, ha\'ing satisfied its quest, gradually worms its way 
out, the labellum springs back into place, the lip of the 
anther is lifted up, and the viscid mass from the rostellum, 
forced into the anther, glues the pollen mass to the insect 
and thus insures its transportation to some other flower. 

Darwins and Mullers, it is true, are not born every day, 
but every man has within him the same elements of success 
if he will only use them aright, bringing to bear upon each 
problem the same patient, intelligent observation, adding 
link to link, till at last the lengthening chain stands per- 
fect and complete. 

And yet there will always remain some problems that 
will baffle the closest scrutiny. "The deeper science searches 
into the mysteries of nature, the more clearly it evolves 
the simplicity of the means used and the infinite diversity 
of results. Thus from under the edge of the veil which we 
are enabled to lift, a glimpse of the harmonious plan of the 
universe is revealed to us. But as for the primary causes, 
they remain beyond the ken of mortal mind; they lie 
within another domain; which man's intellect will ever 
strive to enter and search, but in vain." 

The German scholar who, after a life of patient study of 
a single word, the relative pronoun, regretted on his death- 
bed that his efforts had been scattered and that he had not 
confined himself to a single letter of the Greek alphabet, 
is but a type of the labor required in establishing a single 
fact. Diffusion is weakness, concentration, strength; and 
the man who with divided energies studies a mass of facts 
is outstripped in the race by him who confines himself to 
one. It takes ten years at least, said President Clark, to 
establish one agricultural fact; but it is on the aggregation 



ADDRESSES 287 

of facts that stable law depends, and although we can not 
always see the immediate practical value of the addition 
of a new fact to the fund of knowledge, still no one can ever 
tell how much vital importance is hidden in it. The boy 
dallying with the steam issuing from his mother's teapot 
established the fact of its condensation, and forthwith be- 
came possible its application to all the tremendous enginery 
of modern science. Nor should a fact be despised because 
of its apparent triviality. The great father and founder of 
fruitful investigation. Lord Bacon, says: "The eye of the 
understanding is like the eye of the sense : for as you may 
see great objects through small crannies or levels, so you 
may see great axioms of nature through small and contemp- 
tible instances." 

Not a single physical science can be named that has not 
been built up by the labors of men who were seeking for 
truth while those very labors were considered puerile and 
ridiculous by mere utilitarians. Every scientific truth, it 
has been aptly said, has to pass through three initial stages 
before it can be firmly established : first, that of denial and 
ridicule by the world; second, that of acceptance; and third, 
that of calm assumption that it has always been so. We are 
told that Pythagoras, when he discovered that the square 
of the hypotenuse was equal to the sum of the squares of the 
other two sides, offered up a hecatomb, in grateful recog- 
nition of what had been vouchsafed him, since which time 
whenever a scientific truth has been discovered the oxen 
have always bellowed. The best scientific results of the 
present day which have not yet borne fruit — the ques- 
tions that engage the attention of our scientists — are 
recounted with the same sneers and ridicule by those who 



288 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

claim to be practically wise as were observations in geology 
and experiments in electricity a century ago. " Every great 
advance in practical science in the last half-century has 
been simply the combining or utilizing of materials and re- 
sults wrought out as isolated products of facts, after long 
years of careful investigation, by the patient truth-search- 
ers in all portions of the world." The studies of Frankhn, 
Volta, Arago, Henry, and Faraday in accumulating facts, 
discovering laws, and inventing instruments, made the 
electric telegraph a possibility in our day. 

Those men prosper best in this world of universal in- 
quiry who sit silent, watch longest, and accept most quickly 
each suggestion of change. The thrifty trees hug the earth 
and rocks with a thousand rootlets, feed on air with ten 
thousand leaves, and feel everywhere through and through 
them the throbbing force of life ; but who can tell the count- 
less generations through which they have stood, silently 
drinking in the sunshine of heaven and gathering and ma- 
turing their strength. 

All theories are open to ceaseless inquiry and correction 
and we can expect to progress only by the patience, the 
breadth and the sagacity of our work in uncovering laws 
and methods of life in themselves very secret and obscure. 

The fundamental working conceptions of science change 
with the changing knowledge of the facts they interpret, but 
the foundation remains the same, and he interprets best 
who penetrates most deeply to its heart and questions most 
closely its workings. The good agriculturist stands in a kind 
of awe of living things. He is diffident in the suggestions 
he makes to them, and if the hint is not taken he withdraws 
it at once. If any predisposition appears, he humors it 



ADDRESSES 289 

immediately and is ready to stand a quiet observer in the 
presence of the putting forth of vital powers. 

Variety is the initiatory step of all progress, and we may 
thankfully accept a score of unimportant foundlings, if 
after repeated failures we succeed in producing one ser- 
viceable one of lasting benefit to the human kind. 

But the world is too impatient for results — like the Athen- 
ians of old, madly rushing about, ever seeking for something 
new. Progress is the cry of the age, progressive thought 
the pet pride of to-day. The charm of antiquity is broken. 
The historic tales of our childliood have faded into myth 
before the cold scrutiny of modern learning. The idols of 
the past are overthrown and trodden underfoot by the 
iconoclasts of the present. No doctrine is too sacred, no 
dogma too hoary for the levelers of to-day. Every year, 
nay every month, witnesses the birth of some new theory, 
some grand discovery in the laws of Nature, who in her old 
age seems as prolific of law as a continental congress. New 
creeds, new sciences, new methods are springing up like 
the fabled race of heroes from the uncanny sowing of the 
dragon's teeth, and all under the glorious reign of progres- 
sive thought. Well will it be for us if in this universal 
demand for something new, something strange, some- 
thing out of the beaten track, we can heed the lesson of the 
hour and patiently watch and wait — watch though the 
world deride our waiting; wait till the harvest crowns our 
watching. 

From the "seely wench," who, according to Piatt, taught 
the art of setting corn by accidentally dropping some wheat 
seeds in holes into which she ought to have dibbled car- 
rots and radishes; from the sowing of potatoes broadcast 



290 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

and the drawing of ploughs and harrows by the tails of 
the unfortunate horses in the eighteenth century, to the drill- 
ing and the sulky or steam-traction ploughs of the present 
age, is indeed a great advance. The patient workers in this 
our chosen field have not been many, at least till we come 
down to our own time; and too often, alas, to quote the 
spirited words of another, "like the ancient alchemists have 
starved in the midst of their golden dreams. Tusser, teach- 
ing thrift, never throve. Gabriel Platter, the corn-seller, who 
boasted that he could raise thirty bushels of wheat to the 
acre, died in the streets for want of bread. Jethro TuU, 
instead of gaining an estate, lost two by his horse-hoeing 
husbandry. Arthur Young failed twice in farm management 
before he began his invaluable tours of observation"; and 
Bakewell, irrigating his meadows and raising four crops in a 
single season, was compelled to give up his farm, and died 
in comparative poverty. 

But each one has lifted the veil a little higher and left 
the way a little clearer for those who followed him. Tull, 
experimenting in drilling and horse-hoeing husbandry, all 
but divined the mysteries of chemistry, which then, as 
applied to agriculture, were undiscovered. Thaer, applying 
the natural sciences to agriculture, established a system 
of farm accounts, placing values on the various farm ma- 
terials, and introduced the great principle of rotation of 
crops. Bakewell, discovering the principle of selection in 
breeding, raised to the highest pitch of perfection his flock 
of Leicesters. Stock husbandry rose at a single bound, and 
henceforth the "promiscuous union of nobody's son with 
everybody's daughter" was at an end. Davy, by his chem- 
ical analyses and explanations of agricultural processes, laid 



ADDRESSES 291 

broad and deep the foundations of agricultural chemistry. 
Liebig, teaching the applications of chemistry to agricul- 
ture and the nutrition and growth of plants and animals, 
inaugurated the era of progress of scientific agriculture. 
Boussingault, whose careful analyses and experiments in 
connection with his investigations into the sources of the 
elements of nutrition for plants and the value of food- 
rations for animals, led the "Agricultural Gazette" to say 
of his "Economic Rurale" that it was the most important 
and valuable book for farmers that the chemists of the 
present century have produced; Stockhardt, popularizing 
agricultural chemistry by his lectures and his writings; 
Mechi, laying down the rational principles of farm-manage- 
ment; Henneberg, unfolding the mysteries of the physio- 
ology and economy of feeding farm animals; Ville, teaching 
the principles of complete manures; Grandeau, teaching 
the analytic methods of agricultural chemistry; Deherain, 
for years conducting exhaustive field experiments ; Moercker 
and Wagner studying the application of potash, nitrogen, 
and phosphoric acid to the growing plant; the two Kiihns, 
working in the respective fields of the physiology of cattle- 
feeding and the chemistry of the respiration of animals; 
Wolff, in food-rations, Pettenkofer in respiration; and the 
lengthening list closes with the name of one whose carefully 
conducted experiments for half a century have made the 
estate of Rothamsted a shrine for all true workers in the 
science of agriculture — a Mecca to which the devout 
repair as do the followers of the prophet to their holy city. 
Fifty-seven years ago Sir John Bennet Lawes, entering 
into possession of his estate, commenced a few experiments 
on the effects of different manures upon potted plants and 



292 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

afterwards ii]jon plants in the field. Led by the striking 
results obtained to carry on the same line of investigation 
on a broader scale, nine years later he associated with him- 
self Dr. (jilbert, turned a barn into a laboratory, and com- 
menced that series of patient and exhaustive experiments 
which have won for him and his work a world-wide reputa- 
tion. From the few experiments with })ottcd plants of 1835 
and 183(5, and from a single associate working in a barn 
used for chemical purposes in 1843, his station has risen 
in staff and e(juii)nient to one of national importance, with 
its sixty or more broad acres permanently set aside for 
agricidtural experiment; its trained staff of workers, chem- 
ists, botanists, veterinarians, comj)utcrs, and recorders; 
its laboratory, presented by interested agriculturists in 
recognition of the importance of his work; its munificent 
endowment; its collection of over 40,000 bottles, contain- 
ing the results of thousands of analyses, samples of the 
various animal and vegetable i)roducts, ashes, soils, etc., 
connected with the various experiments; and last, its manu- 
script library, a marvel in itself — thousands of pages, 
classified and indexed, containing a complete record of 
every ascertained fact; a life-history, if we may so term 
it, of every experiment undertaken; a mass of all conceiv- 
able data on a great variety of subjects, tabulated and 
arranged for ready reference. 

Rothamsted has from the outset — and for nearly half a 
century — voluntarily placed itself at the disposition of 
the advocates and })ractitioners of advanced agriculture. 
Scientific and practical i)roblems, as offered, have been 
accepted and faithfidly and exhaustively worked out, re- 
gardless of expense either in time or money. Practical 



ADDRESSES 293 

agriculture in all its possible bearings is represented in 
the publications, and hence the variety of the style of 
its writings, suited to the education of an audience at 
Oxford or a farmers' club. All things have been laid under 
contribution and made to minister to it. The earth, the air, 
and the water have in turn given up their secrets. Like the 
All-seeing One, the hundred-eyed Argus of antiquity, or 
Briareus of the hundred hands, it has suffered nothing to 
escape its close scrutiny and inquiry. From the pure rain- 
drops of heaven to the drainage waters of the earth, and 
from the capture and imprisonment of the free nitrogen of 
the atmosphere to the composition, utilization, and value 
of town-sewerage, it questions them all; and whether they 
answer in the tongue of the chemist, the botanist, or the 
engineer, the answer has invariably been in the direct in- 
terests of practical progressive agriculture. 

The value to agriculture of the work already accomplished 
is well-nigh incalculable. Far less can be estimated that 
of the future, for which, in the will of the generous founder, 
ample provision has been made. Of its immediate import- 
ance, English agriculturists speak in no uncertain terms. 
The author of the "Pioneers and Progress of English Farm- 
ing," referring to the experiments of Sir John Bennet 
Lawes and Dr. Gilbert, says: "The triumph of chemistry 
is summed up in the system of successive cropping without 
impoverishment, which has been established by them. 
It is difficult to estimate the enormous influence which 
their experiments have already exercised upon farming, or 
to assign limits to the increased productiveness of the soil 
which England might have witnessed but for the disastrous 
period of 1873-89." 



294 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Gentlemen of the Association : in my feeble way I 
have endeavored to outline to you the great work accom- 
plished at Kotliamsted. I have likened that station to 
Argus of the hundred eyes, to Briareus of the hundred hands. 
Those mystic impersonations of power and sight were de- 
pendent each of them upon the individual eyes and hands, 
which went to make uj) their being. In like manner the 
strength of tlic station dci)ends upon the individual char- 
acter and make-up of its staff. 

We have with us here to-night an eye and hand of Roth- 
amsted — an eye which has not sought in vain the inter- 
pretation of Nature's problems; a hand which has most 
skillfully assisted the eye in these interpretations. 



WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN OUR 
COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE? ' 

In an old book containing the wisdom of an age two thou- 
sand years older than the present, I find this quotation : 
"How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plow and that 
glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen and is occupied in 
their labors and whose talk is of bullocks?" 

Apparently the same need of instruction was as urgent 
then as now, and the tiller of the soil in the fertile plains 
of the eastern world felt that there was something more to 
be desired than simply following, day in, day out, the dreary 
routine his fathers had left him. That there were sources 
of information even then is evident from the fact that the 
wise Solomon could discourse of trees, from the cedar of 
Lebanon even to the hyssop springing out of the wall; and 
it is added that he spake also of beasts, of fowls, of creeping 
things, and of fishes. The same questions that stirred the 
heart of the agricultural seer so many centuries ago are 
pressing with renewed force now, and more light is sought 
on all the difficult problems that present themselves to the 
farmer of to-day. It is the mission of the agricultural colleges 
to furnish this light and lead the way. 

I am asked to present this afternoon a brief paper on 
what should be taught in our agricultural colleges. Per- 

1 An Address delivered at Washington, D. C, November 10, 1896. 
From Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Convention of the Association 
of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. 



296 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

haps I can express myself in no way more clearly than by 
outlining to you the course at the Massachusetts Agricul- 
tural College. That has stood ever since its foundation, 
in 1867, for agriculture alone, instruction in the mechanic 
arts being supplied by the Institute of Technology, which 
has shared with it the proceeds of the grant of 1862 and 
the later one of 1890. 

While it has been the purpose of the faculty to give the 
best possible instruction upom every subject taught, there 
has been no eflFort to expand the course beyond the proper 
limits of a simple professional school, or to compete in any 
manner with other existing institutions. On the other hand, 
the College has from the outset been intended to be some- 
thing very different from a mere manual-labor or farm 
school for training apprentices in the various operations of 
husbandry. Since the first few years manual labor has been 
entirely discarded, except in so far as it has an educational 
value — not how to plough and hoe, but when and where 
to do it to the best advantage. The hours of student-life 
can be much more profitably employed than in mere manual 
labor, oi)portunities for which are everywhere presented, 
while the facilities for education are offered only at the 
college and for a limited period. More mind and less 
muscle is the watchword of to-day. In preparing the soil, 
in planting, in cultivating, in haying, in harvesting, in 
threshing, in the management of the dairy, in fact almost 
everywhere, intelligence is the principal thing, and mere 
brute force comparatively worthless. The old prejudice 
against thoughtful, studious, and progressive men as book- 
farmers and fancy farmers has at length been overcome by 
the mass of printed matter which is flooding with light 



ADDRESSES 297 

every household, and by the numberless improvements 
which have been demonstrated to be not merely expensive 
luxuries for the rich, but of priceless value to every tiller 
of the soil. 

But to turn more directly to the curriculum itself. This 
naturally divides itself into seven departments : the English, 
the agricultural, the chemical, the botanical, the mathe- 
matical, the zoological, and that of languages and social 
science. 

I. English has a place in the curriculum of the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College because of its practical value 
and its educational value. 

By its practical value we mean its value in enabling the 
student to express his thought by oral and written language. 
Looking at the study from this point of view, we may name 
it the study of oral and written expression. The specific 
subjects and exercises set for securing this practical ad- 
vantage from the study are these: rhetoric, during the fresh- 
man year; declamations, during freshman and sophomore 
years; essays, in the freshman, sophomore, and senior 
years; orations, in the junior year; logic and debates, in 
the senior year. The principal object in these exercises is 
to secure accuracy and facility in the use of the English 
language as an instrument by which thought is expressed. 

In addition to these studies, American literature is 
studied in the sophomore year and English literature in the 
junior and senior years. While, as an incidental advantage, 
the student's style in writing and speaking may be im- 
proved and perfected by reading and studying the best 
works of the best authors, literature is studied chiefly for 
its educational value. As literature is one means by which 



298 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

the thoughts and aspirations of men are expressed, one can 
learn the history and progress of the thought of the Ameri- 
can and EngUsh people from the study of American and 
English literature. The student's mind being brought in 
contact with the great minds that have adorned the pages 
of English and American history, his powers are quick- 
ened and developed thereby, his mental horizon is en- 
larged, and thus a most important educational advantage 
is secured. 

II. The agricultural course covers a field of such wide and 
varied extent that it is hard to compass it in a four-years' 
course. The graduates must know the origin and nature of 
soils and subsoils, and the proper treatment of each; the 
methods and advantages of the various kinds of tillage, and 
the modes of drainage and irrigation, with their cost and 
value. They must understand the worth and peculiar ef- 
fect of every variety of mineral and organic fertilizers; the 
construction and use of all the implements and machines of 
improved husbandry; the best modes of planting, cultivat- 
ing, and harvesting all sorts of crops, and the varieties of 
each which are most valuable for different localities and 
objects. They must be familiar with the characteristics of 
the different breeds of domestic animals and their various 
adaptations; with the proper modes of feeding for particu- 
lar purposes, and of treatment in health and sickness, and 
with the principles of breeding. They must be acquainted 
with the keeping of farm accounts, the ordinary rules of 
business and the legal rights and obligations of landholders; 
with the renovation of worn-out lands and the improve- 
ment of those which are new and rough; with the most de- 
sirable location and construction of farm buildings, the 



ADDRESSES 299 

correct division of an estate into arable, pasture, meadow, 
and woodland, according to circumstances, and the build- 
ing of roads, bridges, and fences. They must understand 
the use of rotation in crops; the management of the dairy; 
the cultivation of vegetables in the market-garden and under 
glass; the raising of small fruits and their transportation 
and sale; the planting and culture of vineyards, orchards, 
and forest trees; and the theory and practice of landscape- 
gardening, with the proper selection and treatment of or- 
namental plants. The strictly agricultural part of this course 
is carried on for eight terms, mostly by lecture, embracing 
the following topics : the history of agriculture, soils, drain- 
age, irrigation, disi)osal of sewage, fertilizers, fields, crops, 
implements, breeds and breeding, dairy-farming, cattle- 
feeding, laboratory and experimental work. The horticul- 
tural work covers six terms under the following heads: 
horticulture, market-gardening, landscape-gardening, flori- 
culture, sylviculture, care of greenhouses, and construction. 

III. The course in chemistry extends over nine terms, 
the last three of which are almost entirely laboratory work, 
eight hours per week. Commencing with lectures and prac- 
tice in elementary chemistry, there follow in succession dry 
and humid qualitative analysis, lectures and practice in 
organic chemistry, chemical physics, and quantitative 
analysis. In connection with this is a series of lectures on 
the application of chemistry to the industries of life. 

IV. Botany covers seven terms, embracing structural, 
analytical, economic, with laboratory work, cryi)togamic, 
and physiological. The course aims to treat of all the more 
important features connected with the study of plants 
which have a close bearing upon agriculture, without at the 



300 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

same time deviating from a systematic and logical plan. 
Throughout the entire course the objective methods of 
teaching are followed, and the student is constantly fur- 
nished with an abundance of plant-material for practical 
study, together with an elaborate series of preserved speci- 
mens for illustration and comparison. In the freshman 
year the study of structural and systematic botany is pur- 
sued, with some observation on insect fertilization. This 
is followed in the first term of the sophomore year by the 
systematic study of grasses, trees, and shrubs, and this 
during the winter term by an investigation into the micro- 
scopic structure of the plant. The senior year is given up 
entirely to cryptogamic and physiological botany. 

V. The mathematical course. In this day of scientific 
experiment, observation, and research on the farm, the 
advantage of a thorough knowledge of the more elementary 
branches of mathematics, general physics, and engineering 
must be more than ever apparent; and it is to meet the 
needs of the agricultural college student in these lines 
that the work in the mathematical department has been 
planned. 

The mathematics of the freshmen, sophomore, and junior 
year is required; that of the senior year elective. The se- 
quence of subjects is as follows: bookkeeping, algebra, 
geometry, and mechanical drawing in the freshman year; 
trigonometry, mechanical drawing, and plane-surveying — 
the latter embracing lectures and field-work in elementary 
engineering, the use of instruments, computation of areas, 
leveling, etc. — in the sophomore year; general physics, — 
including mechanics, electricity, sound, light, and heat, — 
and descriptive geometry or advanced mechanical drawing 



ADDRESSES 301 

in the junior year; and, finally, two electives in the senior 
year, — mathematics and engineering. 

The mathematical option includes the following subjects : 
Fall Term, plane analytic geometry, embracing a study of 
the equations and properties of the point, line, and circle, 
and of the parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola; Winter Term, 
differential calculus; and Summer Term, integral calculus. 

The senior engineering option is designed to give to the 
student the necessary engineering training to enable him 
to take up and apply, on the lines of landscape-engineering 
and the development of property, his knowledge of agricul- 
ture, forestry, botany, and horticulture. It embraces a 
course of lectures, recitations, and field-work on the follow- 
ing subjects: topography, railroad curves, earthwork, con- 
struction and maintenance of roads, waterworks and sewer- 
age systems, etc. 

The engineering elective is intended to equip the stu- 
dent to enter a comparatively new field — that of land- 
scape engineering, which is coming more and more promi- 
nently before the public attention; for with the increasing 
consideration which is being paid to the public health and 
the development and beautifying of our towns and cities, 
come fresh needs and opportunities. 

VI. The zoological course commences with one term of 
anatomy and physiology, followed by a term of laboratory 
work, eight hours per week, in which each student is re- 
quired to make dissections, use the microscope, and make 
drawings of his work. This is followed by one term of 
zoology, three of veterinary science, and four of ento- 
mology, the last three being optional, consisting largely of 
microscopic work and drawing, eight hours per week. 



302 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

VII. The seventh and last course embraces the modern 
languages (French and German), political economy, con- 
stitutional history, and a course of lectures on rural law, 
including the rights and obligations of landholders, and 
other subjects of practical importance to every citizen, 
whatsoever his profession. 

I have now sketched more or less in detail the seven 
divisions of our agricultural course. It is for three years rigid 
and defined, with liberty to select and specialize in the fourth. 
The structure is reared somewhat after this fashion: Agri- 
culture the foundation; botany, chemistry, zoology, and 
mathematics the four corner-stones; while the walls are 
solidly built up with English, horticulture, floriculture, and 
forestry on one side; English, physiology, entomology, com- 
parative anatomy of the domestic animals, and veterinary, 
on another ; English, mechanics, physics, and civil engi- 
neering on the third; and English, French, German, politi- 
cal economy, and constitutional history on the fourth. The 
study of Enghsh is made the basis of all study. It is inter- 
woven with every course. It is, in fact, the very warp and 
woof of every branch pursued. These seven courses, each 
distinct in itself, yet each aiding in the interpretation or 
solution of the difficult problems met with, require a four 
years' course. They proceed hand in hand, and the com- 
pletion of a study in one department is coincident with 
that in another. Mutual help is the watchword. Each for 
all, but all for each, in laying broad and deep the founda- 
tion and building up the sohd structure. Thus, when the re- 
lations of the weather — of heat, air, moisture — to farm- 
ing are considered, on the botanical side are being studied the 
structure of the plant, its organs, the relation of its root- 



ADDRESSES 303 

system to soil and moisture; on the chemical, the elements 
important in an agricultural point of view and their proper- 
ties ; and in the mathematical, such algebra and geometry as 
will lead on to practical work in surveying and drainage. So, 
too, when soils and tillage are under consideration, in Uke 
manner are studied plants beneficial or injurious to man, 
general geology, and those insects hurtful or otherwise to 
the crops. In short, the efiPort is made to have each course 
supplement and be in harmony with the others, and the 
different studies so fit into each other as to make one 
rounded whole. 



REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COM- 
MITTEE, TWELFTH CONVENTION, 1 

1898 

To your executive committee were intrusted a number 
of very important measures vitally affecting the interests 
of the Association. All these have received careful consider- 
ation, and such action has been taken as the circumstances 
seemed to warrant. 

Very early in the year a letter was received from the 
chairman of the committee on seed-testing, appointed 
at the 1896 convention, stating that he had been unable to 
be present when the committee made its report in 1897, 
and that he had sent a letter asking for the continuance of 
the committee for another year, in order that it might de- 
termine practically the values of the apparatus and methods 
proposed rather than leave it to the seed-dealers. The let- 
ter arrived too late for action, and he now asked the execu- 
tive committee to grant such authority. The matter being 
an important one and requiring immediate action, your 
committee, under the fourth article of the section relating 
to officers, authorized by written vote the continuance of 
the said committee for another year. 

The question of securing necessary legislation for the sale 
of uniforms, either made up or the cloth for the same, at 
government prices, to the cadets of the different colleges, 
was taken before the Military Committee of the House at 

* Of the Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. 



ADDRESSES 305 

its short session. The chairman refused to consider it, on 
the ground that the appropriations had already been made 
up, that this would require an extra appropriation for the 
purchase of extra cloth, and that he was pledged not to ask 
for any extra appropriations. It was urged that this did not 
call for any extra expense, as the money from the sales 
would be covered back into the Treasury. But the chair- 
man refused to recede from his position. Your commit- 
tee recommend a continuance of effort on the same lines. 

At the same time legislation was sought for making the 
land-grant colleges depositories of all government publica- 
tions. A bill was drafted and introduced into the Com- 
mittee on Printing. Objection on technical grounds having 
been made, it was withdrawn, and introduced a second time 
in a modified form. The approaching difficulty with Spain, 
however, soon absorbed the entire attention of Congress, 
and it failed to be reported. Your committee has since 
learned that there are not copies of the public documents 
sufiicient to supply the colleges, and that a second bill, 
providing for this addition, would be necessary. 

Of all the questions submitted for the consideration of 
your committee no one has caused so much anxiety as that 
involving the annuity passing under the name of the Morrill 
fund. The act (Senate, 372) providing free homes on the 
public lands for actual and bona fide settlers by reserving 
the public lands, twenty million acres, for that purpose, 
struck immediately at the source from which the Morrill 
annuity is derived, namely, the proceeds derived from 
the sale of public lands. The act provides "That all set- 
tlers under the homestead laws of the United States upon 
the public lands acquired prior to the passage of this act 



306 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

by treaty or agreement from the various Indian tribes, or 
upon military reservations which have been opened to 
settlement, who have or who shall hereafter reside upon the 
tract, entered in good faith, for the period required by exist- 
ing law, shall be entitled to a patent for the land so entered 
upon the payment to the local land officers of the usual and 
customary fees, and no other or further charge of any kind 
shall be required from such settler to entitle him to a patent 
for the land covered by his entry." 

The act passed the Senate and was in the hands of the 
House Committee on Indian Affairs, by whom it was fa- 
vored, before it was discovered, or its mischievous effects 
upon the college revenues realized. Your committee, as- 
sisted by others, was promptly on the ground, not once, but 
five or six times, and every effort was made to warn the 
colleges of the peril. But for the energetic action of their 
officers during the two days of debate upon the bill it must 
certainly have passed. It was finally rejected, but, the 
Senate refusing to recede, the following compromise was 
agreed upon: "That the settlers who purchased with the 
condition annexed of actual settlement on all ceded Indian 
reservations be, and they are hereby, granted an exten- 
sion to July 1, 1900, in which to make payments as now 
provided by law." That is, instead of making the settlers 
a free gift of the land, the government has extended the 
time for payment. It is like the case of the creditor who 
refuses to cancel his debtor's note, but gives him easier 
terms as to installments. There is, however, this difference, 
that the government does not call for any installment. Do 
not deceive yourselves, gentlemen of the Association : sooner 
or later this question will again confront you, and it is the 



ADDRESSES 307 

part of wisdom to settle upon our future policy. While the 
bill was being debated in the House, Senator Morrill intro- 
duced a measure into the Senate providing that the college 
annuities should be paid from any unappropriated sums in 
the Treasury. This bill passed through two readings and 
was then lost sight of in the greater interests of the war. 
It is the unanimous opinion of your committee that either 
that bill or one of similar import should be passed. 

In response to the many requests for information respect- 
ing the detail of officers to the colleges, a personal interview 
with the Adjutant-General of the Army was secured, and 
the order of the War Department forbidding the detail of 
any officer for any service until after the report of the peace 
commissioners was sent out in a circular letter to each pre- 
siding officer. While it would seem impossible at present 
to secure any details, would it not be for the best interests 
of this Association to place itself on record, either now or at 
such time as may seem suitable, respecting the value of 
these details to the colleges and the country at large? The 
law distinctly states that in the details to the several States 
preference is to be given to the colleges of agriculture and 
mechanic arts. It further states that officers must be de- 
tailed who are agreeable to the authorities of the different 
institutions. Both these provisions have been disregarded 
in two or three instances. It is recommended that, when 
action is taken, the whole subject of these details be care- 
fully reviewed and that colleges receiving officers on their 
faculty be allowed a choice in this matter. 

The order of the President during the late war, allowing 
a certain number of second heutenants to be appointed from 
the colleges, did not entirely secure the result intended. 



308 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Consultation was not had with the college authorities. 
Selection was made from the ranking men in the military 
department; and when, as happened in three cases, the 
men were unable to accept, from physical disability or other 
cause, the colleges were passed by. The subject has seemed 
of sufficient importance to have a special paper presented 
to this convention on "Land-grant and other colleges and 
the national defense." 

Special committees have been appointed to forward the 
interests of the cooperative station exhibit at Paris in 1900, 
the establishment of experiment stations of engineering, 
and the securing facilities for graduate work in the several 
departments at Washington. Reports will be made by their 
respective chairmen, and we will not occupy your time with 
what would be mere repetition. 

In conclusion, we would state that the usual duties de- 
volving upon the committee have been faithfully performed. 
The proceedings of the last convention have been edited 
and published, the various papers recommended by the 
committee appointed for that purpose, have been published, 
and the customary notices, programs, etc., have been is- 
sued. 

In behalf of the executive committee, 

Henry H. Goodell, Chairman. 



REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COM- 
MITTEE, FIFTEENTH CONVENTION, 

1901 

Immediately following adjournment of the last conven- 
tion, the new executive committee met and organized for 
the year, making choice of E. B. Voorhees for secretary 
and H, H, Goodell for chairman. 

To the nine measures referred to it for consideration 
careful attention has been paid, and such action taken as 
the circumstances in each case seemed to warrant. First 
in importance was the bill for the establishment of schools 
or departments of mining and metallurgy in connection 
with the colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the me- 
chanic arts. It will doubtless be remembered that during 
the last session of Congress (Fifty-sixth Congress, First 
Session) the Senate Committee on Mines and Mining re- 
ported a bill (S. 3982) entitled "A bill to apply a portion 
of the proceeds of the sale of the public lands to the endow- 
ment, support, and maintenance of schools or departments 
of mining and metallurgy in the several States and Terri- 
tories, in connection with the colleges for the benefit of 
agriculture and the mechanic arts, established in accord- 
ance with the provisions of an act of Congress approved 
July 2, 1862." 

The committee gave a very careful and detailed consider- 
ation to all the provisions of the bill, and unanimously re- 
ported it to the Senate with a favorable recommendation, 



310 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

accompanying it with a report which fully set forth the 
merits of the measure and the great national importance 
of the interests it was intended to promote. 

The Senate, in turn, subjected the bill to a searching and 
thorough discussion, adopted a few useful amendments, 
and passed it without a dissenting voice. 

When the bill reached the House of Representatives it 
was referred to the Committee on Mines and Mining, was 
there fully considered and unanimously reported to the 
House with a favorable recommendation, as a substitute 
for one that had been previously reported from the same 
committee and was then on the House Calendar. The 
bill was reported by Mr. Mondell, of Wyoming, who had 
given particular attention to the subject and who accom- 
panied it with a strong and convincing report. 

Thus the measure stood when Congress adjourned, the 
pressure of other business preventing this from reaching a 
vote. The bill as it stood was in the nature of a compromise, 
and is believed to be just and acceptable to all interests. 
Several bills relating to the same subject-matter have been 
before each committee, and the form finally agreed upon 
seems to embody the best features of all. Your committee 
recommends that this bill or one of similar import be intro- 
duced at the earliest practicable moment of the next session 
of Congress. 

Under the resolution that the executive committee take 
into consideration the matter of making the collective ex- 
hibit of the stations a permanent exhibit of the experiment 
stations at the national capital, and endeavor to make suit- 
able arrangements for its permanent installation and care 
at Washington, a communication was sent to the honorable 



ADDRESSES 311 

Secretary of Agriculture, stating the wish of the Association, 
and asking whether such installation and care were feasible. 
The following reply was received: "The exhibit is now at 
Buffalo, and very likely will be used at Charleston next 
winter. The question of its permanent installation here 
will be carefully considered when we are through with its use 
at these expositions." 

In the closing hours of the last convention a communica- 
tion was received from the management of the Pan Ameri- 
can Exposition, asking that a delegate be appointed to the 
dairy test to be held in Buffalo. The executive committee 
was directed to appoint a delegate. At a meeting held later, 
Director W. H. Jordan was so appointed. 

Conformably to resolution offered by Dr. Dabney, a me- 
morial was sent to the honorable Secretary of Agriculture 
indorsing his action in opening the Department of Agri- 
culture to the graduates of the colleges established for the 
benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and pledging 
the earnest support of the Association in carrying out that 
policy. 

The executive committee was further directed to urge 
upon the honorable Secretary of Agriculture the desirability 
of publishing : — 

(a) A second edition of the history and description of ex- 
periment stations as originally prepared for the Paris 
Exposition; 

(6) A separate edition of the addresses of President 
Atherton and Director Jordan; 

(c) The lectures of Dr. Bernard Dyer. 

The second edition of the history of the experiment sta- 
tions in this country has already been published and dis- 



312 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

tributed. The lectures of Dr. Dyer have been approved 
and will shortly be issued, but in regard to the ad- 
dresses of President Atherton and Director Jordan it was 
thought wiser to publish separates from the account of the 
proceedings of the convention than to ask for a separate 
edition. 

The question of constituting all land-grant colleges 
designated depositories of government publications has 
continued through the past year to claim the attention 
of your committee. Taking advantage of the fact that a bill 
to amend the act regulating the public printing and distri- 
bution of public documents was then being considered, it 
succeeded in having an additional section incorporated, 
including all the colleges among the number of designated 
depositories. The bill, however, failed of being called up, 
and the section shared the fate of the bill, dying with the 
last Congress. It seems unwise to introduce this into 
Congress as a special bill, and it is recommended that the 
new executive committee keep in touch with the printing 
committee and see that a section providing for our inter- 
ests is inserted in the amended bill. 

The executive committee has considered the summer 
school of graduate instruction in agriculture, suggested by 
the Ohio State University, and the ofiFer of the university 
to assume responsibility for the expense of the first session. 
The committee recommends that the convention approve 
the holding of a session during the summer of 1902, to be 
under the control of the president of the said university, 
with the expectation of adopting the school as a cooperative 
enterprise, under the control of the convention, should the 
success of the first session seem to justify the continuance 



ADDRESSES 313 

of the school. The following outline is submitted as a basis 
for the discussion of the convention: — 

(1) A summer school of graduate instruction in agricul- 
ture shall be conducted under the auspices of the American 
Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 
Stations, the sessions to be held at different institutions be- 
longing to the Association, as the convention from time 
to time may direct. 

(2) Each convention shall appoint a committee of control, 
to be composed of three members, one of whom shall be 
the president of the institution at which the next session 
is held, or some other representative selected by that in- 
stitution. 

(3) The committee of control shall have power to select 
the director and other officers of the school and to fix their 
duties and compensation. 

(4) The convention shall provide, either by itself or in 
cooperation with the institution at which the session is to 
be held, for the expenses of the school, and for this purpose 
a special annual assessment, not to exceed ten dollars, may 
be laid upon the colleges and experiment stations belong- 
ing to the Association. 

For the executive committee, 

H. H. GooDELL, Chairman. 



ADDRESS TO THE SENIOR CLASS, 1887 

Young Gentlemen of the Senior Class : — As the 
hour draws nigh when we must part, I feel that I cannot 
let you go without in some more personal manner wishing 
you God-speed, and that good fortune and success that 
waits on honest endeavor. Four times since first we met 
the year has renewed its beauty, and now the spring 
stands crowned in all its loveliness. 

Wherever the eye may rest, on valley, wood, or mountain, 
everywhere is life — life in its prime of beauty. This week 
you enter upon your life-work, whose harvest will be what 
you make it. Can I do more wisely than to recall to mind 
the golden words the Hindoo uttered more than two thou- 
sand years ago: "Man follows the bent of his will; subdues, 
or is led by his passion; bows to the law of his conscience 
or willfully lives in rebellion. He says to himself, 'I am 
free!' He says true! He is free to grow noble; he is free, 
too, to work his undoing. But though he act as he will, he 
is but a tool in the great hand of destiny, used to perfect its 
fabric of life. Out of evil comes good, but not for the doer 
of evil; he has earned for himself sorrow that he did freely; 
he has worked for the good that he did blindly. Out of evil 
comes good, from sorrow shall follow a blessing." 

Yours will be a stirring age. The great questions now 
agitating humanity will confront you at every step, and 
you will have to decide for yourself their right or wrong. 
Consciously, or unconsciously, you will play your little part 
in the great drama of life, and work for the general harmony 
of the whole. Stand fast for the right ; strike at the root of evil. 



ADDRESSES 315 

Be honest! Be true, and eschew the hollow shams and 
pretences by which you will be surrounded! 

Fight well, and thou shalt see after these wars 
Thy head wear sunbeams and thy head touch stars. 

Use your talents on the side of morality and justice. 
Never prostitute them to a cause you disbelieve in. Re- 
member that they are a special gift of God, and are not 
objects of barter and trade to be knocked down to the 
highest bidder. If you but have his seal upon them, you 
will wear the livery of the Deity. Wherever you may settle, 
remember that the community has a right to expect in- 
finitely more of you than of the clever young mechanic, 
who may chance to live next door. It has a right to demand 
that you shall be a cultured gentleman. Genius and learn- 
ing must go hand in hand with character. The man who 
can stand forth with uplifted brow in the conscious sense 
of a pure body and an unsoiled mind is a power which none 
can withstand. For the angels of light are on his side, and 
the powers of darkness cannot harm him. 

And now, as we bid you farewell, we wish you success 
in every good and honorable undertaking. We pray that 
every blessing may attend you, and that the riches of that 
mercy we ask for ourselves may rest upon you. Perplexi- 
ties and trials will come. The world will seem dark and the 
way dreary. There will be times when you will not know 
which way to tiu-n. But rest assured that the darkness 
comes before the day, and if you but have faith the light 
will surely break. Be yours the prayer of the poor Breton 
fisherman as he puts to sea in his wretched skiff: "Oh, God, 
thy ocean is so large and my boat so small." 



ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS 

1888 

Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class: — It 
is not without emotion that I see you here to-day, for there 
comes vividly back to me the time when, a quarter of a 
century ago, I too stood, as you are now standing, on the 
threshold of the great world, looking out on its busy scenes 
and wondering where my place would be, and what the 
work I should be called upon to do. I cannot help rejoicing 
with you in all your glad hopes and aspirations, in your 
generous enthusiasms and warm-hearted confidence, for in 
the vigor of your young life everything now seems pos- 
sible, and the difficult, easy. And yet there is a feeling of 
sadness blended with it all, for I know that the way will 
not be one all of ease, and many times you will be tempted 
in your despair to give up the contest and turn your back 
upon it. 

What better wish, then, can I offer you than that you 
should fill your place in life, — fill it so completely that there 
can be no question about it, — fill it with your might, — 
fill it in all honesty of heart and sincerity of purpose. Let 
there be no half-way work about it. If it is worth the doing 
at all, it is worth the doing well, and the judgment of man- 
kind will estimate you according to your doing. The world 
admits no shirks, and the half-in-earnest man receives 
but half recognition. Put your whole soul in your work, 
and as sure as day succeeds the night your reward will 



ADDRESSES 317 

come. The patriarch of old wrestled with the angel of the 
Lord through the entire night, and would not let him go 
even at the coming of the dawn, till he had received the 
wished-for blessing. He was terribly in earnest, and the 
shrunken sinew and the hollow of his thigh bore witness 
to the intensity of his purpose. 

Be not cast down by the thought that yours is but a 
humble place and it makes no difference what you do. 
It does make a difference and the world cannot do without 
you. It is the filling of just such places that makes the 
perfect whole. 

The healing of the world 
Is in its nameless saints. Each separate star 
Seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars 
Break up the night and make it beautiful. 

To fill worthily your place you must look up. Walk with 
your face downwards considering the things of earth, and 
your purposes will be low and groveling. Accustom your- 
self to look upon labor as low, and naught can save it from 
being drudgery. Join brains with hands and you emanci- 
pate it. " Drudgery without intelligence is slavery. Labor 
with intelligence is freedom." High thoughts will lift you 
— low ones degrade you. Respect for things above will draw 
you upward to their level. An instructive fable tells us 
that men once walked upon all fours like beasts of the field, 
but they caught sight of the stars, and the heavenly attrac- 
tion lifted them up to the human form and semblance of the 
divine. And so with you, — with eyes turned upward to the 
heavenly light you will lose the dross of earth and walk in 
that divine radiance which is a part of God. 



318 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

And now, as we set upon you the seal of our approval, 
and send you forth to justify to the world our action, we 
bid you God-speed in all that is true and right; and as we 
grasp your right hand, we say from out the very depths of 
our hearts, not good-bye, but God be with you ! 



ADDRESS TO THE SENIOR CLASS, 1890 

Gentlemen op the Senior Class : — The hour so im- 
patiently looked forward to by you has come, and but a 
few brief moments more and you too will have crossed the 
dividing line that separates the present from the past, and 
have taken your place in the fighting ranks of life. Four 
times the spring has clothed these hills in all the beauty of 
its green. Four times the wintry storms have wrapped the 
mantle of the snow about them. From yonder rooms you 
have daily watched the glories of the sun descending be- 
hind the western hills, and daily, as your eyes have swept 
the outlines of the wondrous picture nature has spread out 
before you, you have gathered fresh inspiration and gone 
forth with renewed courage to perform the tasks assigned 
you. But now, too soon, the vivid surroundings of the pre- 
sent will be but a memory of the past, and the scenes amid 
which you have dehghted to wander, will be the homes of 
others than yourselves. It will cost you a pang to root out 
these ideals of the present hour and make for yourselves 
new homes, new friends, new lives. Yet after all it is right 
and natural that it should be so. For separation is the com- 
mon inheritance of man. No propagated life can be fully 
developed till it is separated from the parent stock. 

All life that lives to thrive 

Must sever from its birthplace and its rest; 

StUl must the sapling top 

Ere sunk in earth its fibres fresh will root; 



320 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Must from the oak-tree drop 

Ere forest monarchs from the seed can shoot. 

Nay, even death itself, must lay its blasting hand upon all 
that is dearest and most precious, ere it can be transplanted 
to a more perfect life and growth. Time has wrought many 
changes in your midst. As I look down upon you, I miss 
familiar faces, faces of those who set out with you. Some 
have fallen out by the way, — others have entered upon 
new purposes and activities, — and one, alas ! whose eager 
soul outstripped the fetters of his mortal frame, has laid 
down his young life at the very outset of his career and 
finished his work ere it was well begun. This is the hour for 
sober thought, for self-communion, for looking over your 
stock in trade and seeing what you have to offer to the world. 
Gone now are all the petty animosities of your college years, 
banished the little dissensions and jealousies of your 
younger days. The world is too large, too grand for you 
to harbor them longer. The cry of battle is ringing in your 
ears, and in the pressing duties of the present forgotten are 
the resentments of the past. "When," says the Apostle 
Paul, "when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood 
as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man 
I put away childish things." 

Young men, manhood with all its glorious possibilities 
lies open before you, and the question comes to you, not 
what can the world do for me, but what can I do for the 
world? What can I do to make it wiser and better? What 
can I give to my fellow men to help and bless them? 
And just in proportion as you answer that question aright, 
will be the measure of your success. 

And now, as for the last time we meet, as students and 



ADDRESSES 321 

instructor, as for the last time I grasp your hands and wish 
you every success that follows earnest, right endeavor, then 
comes to my lips the blessing hallowed by the usage of 
three thousand years : — 

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee ; 

The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious 
unto thee ; 

The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee 
peace. 



CAPTAIN WALTER MASON DICKIN- 
SON, U. S. A.i 

My friends, we have met to-day to hold memorial ser- 
vices for one who was dear to us all. It is very fitting that 
such services of remembrance should be held here. For 
this was his home. These were the hills beloved. This was 
his college, and here he came back in his riper years to share 
the knowledge he had obtained with his younger brothers. 
And if the simple story of his life may lead any one not 
merely in word, but in deed, to follow the path he chose and 
take as his precious legacy all that was pure and noble and 
lofty in him, I shall feel that this hour will not have been 
spent in vain. 

When I first knew him, he was a little curly -headed lad, 
who, standing at my knee and asking all manner of ques- 
tions about the Civil War, used to declare that he was 
going to run away and become either a sailor, or a soldier 
in the cavalry. Prophetic utterance! The dream of the 
boy became the reality of the man, and what in his child- 
ish heart he had longed to be, found its fulfillment in the 
chosen profession of his life. It is interesting to note how 
unconsciously, all through his life, there was the same strong 
under-current of patriotic feeling, only occasionally coming 
to the surface. The crude composition of his sophomore 
year on "The greatness of the United States" and its abil- 

^ Address delivered at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Novem- 
ber 9, 1898, at the memorial exercises for Captain Dickinson. 



ADDRESSES 323 

ity to conquer any other nation, — his fondness for the 
study of American history, not merely at the academy, but 
I may add, to the very close of his life, — the hearty em- 
phatic support of President Cleveland's attitude on the 
Venezuelan question, found its fitting culmination in the 
noble words pronounced in this very chapel at the me- 
morial service for Governor Greenhalge. They will bear 
repeating, and I would that every young man listening to 
me to-day would take them to his heart and grave them 
there as with a pen of iron. Speaking of the higher duty, he 
says: — 

"That duty is the one you owe to your country. By 
your country I do not mean this small space, crossed and 
recrossed by the beautiful and granite-capped hills which 
so closely encircle us, but I speak of a country, a part of 
whose wide domain is always in sunlight, extending west- 
ward from the storm-washed rocks of the New England 
shore to the farthest extremities of the Aleutian Isles — 
from the present frozen shores of the great lakes to the ever 
tropical climate of the Mexican gulf — a country with 
seventy millions of people — a country of free speech and 
free rehgion — a country covered with schools and churches 
— a country to be proud of; a country to respect; and above 
all, if need be, a country to die for. This is the spirit which 
should be taught in all our public schools, encouraged at 
the fireside and in the churches, that the aim of every boy 
and young man might be to make this our common country 
united — one for all, for in unison only is there strength. 
Then the day will surely come when one could wish no other 
epitaph than this: 'He lived and died an American citizen.'" 

He had learned well the lesson that the civic virtues, 



324 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

the duty man owes to the State, tower above all else. Like 
Andrew Fletcher, he could exclaim: "I would readily lose 
my life to serve my country, but would not do a base thing 
to save it." 

Entering the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 
September, 1873, he pursued the regular course for nearly 
three years, leaving in his junior year to accept an appoint- 
ment to the Military Academy at West Point, offered him 
by President Julius H. Seelye, who was then in Congress. 
He entered on June 14, 1876. Of his life there and the 
impression made, let his classmates bear witness. Of the 
many letters received, I can only make use of a few, just 
enough to give you an inside view of the man in this forma- 
tive period of life. 

" I remember him as being a high-strung young fellow, 
conscientious and energetic in the performance of his duty, 
and just the kind of man whom you would expect to be at 
his post of duty in an emergency." — "Generous, honest 
and unselfish — inflexible in his adherence to truth, he made 
friends whenever he went." — "Dickinson had a lovely 
disposition which made him most congenial company. He 
always did his very best wherever he was put, and as a 
soldier always did his duty. He was beloved by his men 
and respected by his fellow officers." — "He learned eas- 
ily, took good rank in his class, and was universally popu- 
lar. Bright, genial, and a good soldier, he was a most wel- 
come addition to any circle. Transferred from the cavalry 
to the Seventeenth Infantry, and serving up to the time of 
his glorious, but regretted death, at the front of his troops, 
where he voluntarily placed himself, despite the fact that 
his duties as a quartermaster appointed his place in the rear, 



ADDRESSES 325 

his soldierly instincts and sense of duty prevailed, with 
that sad result. A soldier, a gentleman and a scholar. God 
rest his soul!" — "My classmate Dickinson has always 
been the same sunny, light-hearted boy he appeared to be 
when we reported at West Point in 1876. The last long talk 
I had with him was at Tampa, discussing the projected 
campaign. He was eager for the active service and looked 
forward with high hopes to our immediate success with the 
efficient army then organizing. *Dick,' as we were wont to 
call him among ourselves, was naturally a great favorite 
in his class and among his brother officers, and withal he was 
a most efficient officer. The loss on the day of July 1 was 
so heavy and immediate to us that at first I hardly appre- 
ciated that we had lost our classmate, but as time goes on, 
I find that I miss him the more, as my mind is capable of 
appreciating the fact that we can never hope to see again 
his cheery smile or hear his hearty laugh." 

What higher commendation can a man seek than this? 
Conscientious in the discharge of duty — Doing his best 
in whatever position placed — Inflexible in his adherence 
to truth — A soldier, gentleman and scholar — these are 
no uncertain words of praise. They represent the noblest 
ideals and highest conceptions of duty. 

Graduating from the Academy in June, 1880, he was 
assigned as Second Lieutenant to the Fourth U. S. Cav- 
alry. At last his boyish dreams were realized and he was 
in truth a member of that gallant army in which he took 
so much pride. The next eleven years were busy ones for 
our young, untried officer. We catch glimpses of him now 
in the field against the Indians and now in garrison on 
some lone frontier post — now doing duty as quarter- 



326 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

master and now on recruiting service. But wherever placed, 
the same record for eflSciency and thoroughness follows 
him. He was complimented by General Ruger for a forced 
march, made alone with fifty Indian scouts, covering a 
distance of two hundred and fifty miles from San Carlos 
agency to Sipa, New Mexico, in three days, the Indians 
running by the side of his horse. And his captain writes: 
"He was unusually attentive to duty and thorough in all 
that he did. I always considered him a brave, true man, 
extremely sincere in his attachments and relations with 
others. He was a devoted husband, and just and generous 
in all his relations with his friends." 

The following brief synopsis of his army life, furnished 
by a brother officer, gives continuity to the picture : — 

"Upon graduation he was assigned to the Fourth U. S. 
Cavalry, joining his troop at Fort Sill, Indian Territory 
(the Kiowa and Comanche Reservation). From the In- 
dian Territory the regiment was ordered to Colorado, 
keeping in check the Utes; then to New Mexico for gar- 
rison duty, which at that time meant continuous field 
service against the Apaches. After three years' service 
he was detailed to the Infantry and Cavalry School at 
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After graduation he was re- 
tained at the post until 1886, when with his troop he was 
again ordered to New Mexico. 

"Receiving his promotion to a first lieutenancy, Sep- 
tember 1, 1886, he was ordered to Fort Huachuca, Ari- 
zona, then to the Cavalry Depot, Jefferson Barracks, 
Missouri, and again to Arizona, remaining there until the 
regiment was ordered to the Pacific coast. In 1891 he 
transferred to the Seventeenth Infantry and was stationed 



ADDRESSES 327 

at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming. From this post he was 
detailed to Amherst, Massachusetts, as Professor of Mili- 
tary Science at the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 
After a tour of service at this college he rejoined his regi- 
ment at Columbus Barracks, Ohio, remaining on duty at 
that post until the late declaration of war, when he was 
ordered to active service in Cuba. At this time he was the 
regimental quartermaster, appointed April 1, 1898, re- 
ceiving his promotion to a captaincy April 26, 1898, which 
was confirmed by the Senate, after his death, July 14, 1898. 

"Captain Dickinson was stationed at a number of posts 
during his service, the following being a partial list: — 
Fort Sill, Indian Territory; Forts Cummings, Bayard and 
Stanton, New Mexico; Forts McDowell, Huachuca, and 
Bowie, Arizona; Fort Walla Walla, Washington; Presidio 
of San Francisco and Yosemite National Park, California; 
Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming; Jeflferson Barracks, Missouri, 
and Columbus Barracks, Ohio." 

One last picture of the dashing cavalryman we have, 
drawn by the hand of one who was in action with him, 
and we see him just where we should expect to see him, 
in the fore-front of the battle, leading a charge against the 
lurking Apaches : — 

"We were in but one Indian fight together, at Horse- 
Shoe Canon, on the Arizona-Mexican line, April 22, 1882. 
The Indians occupied a strong position on a high bluff, which 
we finally carried by assault. In the assault, Walter was 
the very first to reach the summit, and I well remember, 
as the line of his troop swept up the hill, he was the for- 
ward apex of a triangle, of which the two sides were formed 
of the men of his troop on his right and left rear." 



328 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Transferred at his own request November 4, 1891, to 
the Seventeenth Regiment U. S. Infantry, he remained 
in this new branch of the service only a brief nine months, 
and was then detailed as military instructor to the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College. Why should I dwell upon 
his work here? Is it not known to you all? The pains he 
took in bringing up the battalion to the highest pitch of ex- 
cellence, eliciting from the Army Inspector the comment, 
"The youngster has done well"; the interest he took in 
every man of his command ; the solid conscientious work he 
put into his duty. Who of you that ever saw him walk 
across the parade ground as if he owned the very ground he 
trod upon, but recognized that he was a leader among men? 
Who that ever saw him handle the cadets, and watched the 
animation and the force with which he drilled them, but 
recognized the born soldier? Obedience, implicit obedience, 
he demanded. Unstinted praise he gave when merited; 
sharp, stinging rebuke when deserved. But with all this 
the boys liked him — nay, more, they loved him while they 
feared him. That same nameless charm of personality which 
led his brother oflScers to call him "Dickie," charmed them, 
and their admiration for the man blossomed into affection 
for the friend. 

How completely he won their hearts this extract from 
a letter written by one of the graduates, speaks eloquently : 
"I am grateful for the opportunity to help in this me- 
morial. The deep personal interest he took in each of us 
who came under his instruction and discipline, his complete 
devotion to duty, to the battalion, to the whole college; 
his sorrow at our shortcomings and his pride in our successes, 
made us regard him with more than ordinary feelings as our 



ADDRESSES 329 

friend. His last words to our class in our class-room were so 
characteristic of him that I will repeat them as nearly as 
my memoiy will allow: * If you ever come where I am, come 
and see me — I '11 try and make it pleasant for you. If you 
are ever in trouble, let me know — I'll try and help you. 
Good-bye. * — And he was gone from the recitation room 
to his office. Every man in that room knew he meant just 
what he said and that he meant it to apply to him. The 
college has lost a good champion and the country a noble 
officer." 

The words of parting to the class that had been under 
his instruction for four years convey so clearly his own con- 
ception of duty that I know you will bear with me a mo- 
ment longer while I repeat them: — 

"Young gentlemen, the time has now come when we are 
to separate, and there are a few things that I take occa- 
sion to say to you, because I shall never have the oppor- 
tunity again. I came here from twelve years' continuous 
army service on the Plains, beyond the Mississippi. You 
thought, perhaps, I was rather a rough fellow. My way 
of dealing with you at first seemed, probably, somewhat 
severe. I tried to teach you lessons of unquestioning obedi- 
ence, for obedience is the first duty of a soldier; but I think 
you have learned to understand me, as I have learned to 
understand you, and our relations, on the whole, have been 
very pleasant. And now, as you leave the college to go out 
into the world, I wish to say two or three things which I 
trust you will not forget. The first is: Remember always 
to be a gentleman. Second: Be truthful; always truthful. 
No man can be a true soldier on any other basis. Third: 
Wherever you are placed, under whatever circumstances 



330 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

and on every occasion, be true to yourselves. And last: 
Whatever you find to do in the world, give to it the best 
that is in you and do it for all you are worth." 

Homely words, tersely expressed, but striking out 
straight from the shoulder to the mark. What Christopher 
North calls "A cut and thrust style, without any flourish. 
Scott's style when his blood was up and the first words came 
like a van-guard impatient for battle." 

A man is judged not by the place he fills, but by the 
way in which he fills it. He was an unknown quantity 
so far as instructing was concerned, and when he found that 
he really could teach, he suddenly woke to a consciousness 
that life had a deeper meaning for him than he had ever 
realized before. It was most stimulating to hear his enthu- 
siasm over his new work. He went at it in the same con- 
scientious manner in which he performed every duty, but 
there was added to that a wondering delight in his new- 
found powers. He studied international law — he worked 
at constitutional history and called upon all the resources 
of his previous years of reading American history to pre- 
pare himself the better for the lecture room. In fact — 
"his work at the college was so well done that it seems as 
if he could sleep better in the soil of the town where he 
did one piece of thoroughly finished work .md for which he 
is sure to be remembered." 

Rejoining his regiment in 1896, he served with it for 
the next eighteen months at Columbus, Ohio. Then came 
the call to arms and with it his appointment as quarter- 
master, and the movement of the regiment to Tampa 
and thence to Cuban soil. When they reached Baiquiri, the 
regiment marched on and he was left to unload the stores 



ADDRESSES 331 

and baggage. Chafing under his forced inactivity and hear- 
ing that a battle was imminent, he left the ship and re- 
joined the regiment Monday, June 27, five miles from 
Santiago. Being ordered by the lieutenant-colonel to return 
and finish the unloading, he made his way back on the fol- 
lowing day to the shore, completed his task, and once more 
— late on the night of June 29 — reached his command. 
On Thursday the army advanced, and that night the regi- 
ment bivouacked so near the enemy that fires were not 
allowed to be lit and the utmost quiet was enjoined that 
their position might not be betrayed. 

It is not my purpose to go into details of the battle of El 
Caney . That has already been done by abler pens than mine. 
SuflSce it to say that El Caney is a small village cresting a 
hill three and a half miles northeast of San Juan, three 
miles north of El Poso, and five or six miles northeast of 
Santiago. In the native language it signifies "the tomb," 
because upon this hill were buried many of the ancient 
inhabitants — a fit name for the battle-field where so many 
of our bravest found their last resting-place. On that fatal 
morning no one was calmer or more cheerful than Lieuten- 
ant Dickinson. No fear nor disturbing thought seemed 
to enter his mind, and he made his few preparations for the 
advance as quietly and with the same care as if going on 
parade. His duties as quartermaster did not require his 
presence at the front, but he could not bear to remain at the 
rear and not share the dangers of his comrades. Going to 
Lieutenant-Colonel Haskell he said: "Colonel, I want to go 
with you to-day"; and from that time, with the exception 
of two short intervals, during which he was carrying orders, 
never left his side until he received his death wound. 



332 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

The brigade was in motion shortly before daybreak, pain- 
fully making its way over the narrow, slippery paths and 
climbing the grassy ridge overlooking the village. The 
Twelfth and the Seventh regiments first deployed and took 
position. Then came the order for the Seventeenth to 
place itself on the right of the Seventh. Cautiously ad- 
vancing in single file, it struck the sunken road running 
parallel to the northeast slopes of El Caney. It was com- 
manded by block-houses at either end, and in front was an 
open country swept by the Spanish marksmen. The hedge 
along the road was strongly interlaced with barbed wire. 
The Colonel directed this to be cut, and through the open- 
ing passed out into the field beyond, attended only by 
Dickinson. In an instant this drew upon them the fire from 
a hundred unseen guns. What followed is best described 
in the words of the Colonel, taken from a private letter 
written a short time before his death : — 

"Captain Dickinson's death wound was received at the 
same moment I was shot through the left breast. He then 
received a bullet through his right arm at the same in- 
stant I was shot through the knee. This shot knocked me 
down, and seeing me fall, he ran toward the men and told 
them to 'Go and bring in the Colonel.' In other words, he 
did not leave my side till he had been wounded twice." 

It is only right to say that all other accounts report 
Captain Dickinson as being shot first in the arm; and seeing 
the Colonel fall, he went back for help, and on his return 
received his fatal wound. The weight of evidence would 
seem to indicate that this is the correct version. Placed in 
a Utter and receiving such aid as was possible on the field, 
he remained all day exposed to the bullets of the sharp- 



ADDRESSES 333 

shooters, being wounded a third time in the fleshy part 
of the leg, and a Httle later grazed in the arm and ear. Who 
can tell the agony of that long day in the burning heat of 
a tropic sun ! But his courage never faltered and he greeted 
each comrade with a wan smile and pressure of the hand. 

Heroes are forged on anvils hot with pain 

And splendid courage comes but with the test. 

It is a beautiful incident that, as he lay there, at inter- 
vals amid the crash and uproar of the battle there came 
to his ears the familiar sounds of his childhood. In the 
village but a few hundred yards distant the cackling of 
hens and the crowing of cocks could be distinctly heard. 
The Bob Whites were calling to their mates, and the 
hoodios, a species of daw, flying from tree to tree, were 
calhng in strange, but pleasant notes. 

Removed to the field hospital, he seemed troubled at 
the presence of so many woimded men, and at his own 
request was placed in a small shelter tent under a mango 
tree. And here, watched over by his faithful sergeant, 
George Kaltschmidt, he hngered on through that soft 
moonht night till the end came. 

An hour before the dawn the forest birds stir uneasily 
in their sleep. They are dreaming of the day. An hour before 
the dawn, his trembling spirit, struggling from its mortal 
frame, flew upward and found rest. The dawn of that 
great day which comes to all alike, had come to him, 
and on his wondering eyes there broke the glories of a 
never-ending life. 

My friends, "there is no heroic poem in the world but 
is at bottom a biography, the life of a man; and also it may 



334 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

be said, there is no life of a man faithfully recorded, but 
is a heroic poem of its sort." Walter Dickinson was a man 
like unto ourselves — a man of like weaknesses and passions, 
but his biography is written in our hearts, and in our hearts 
rings on forever the poem of his strong young life. 

Chaplain Trumbull in one of his "War Memories" has 
a chapter devoted to "the soldier heart buttoned over by 
the soldier coat," and tells the following incident: Be- 
ing called upon one day to conduct burial services over 
two men who had died in the hospital, he was greatly 
shocked as he entered the hall where the bodies were lying, 
at the apparently unfeeling manner of their comrades, 
who were jesting and laughing as though nothing unusual 
had occurred. But in the midst of their chattering, one 
suddenly turned to the other and said: "Jem, have you cut 
a lock of Bill's hair? I reckon his mother would like it. 
My mother would." It was a revelation to him, for under- 
neath the rough exterior he recognized the soldier heart 
beneath the coat, beating true to the mother-love of his 
boyhood's days. Somebody's mother wanted a lock of her 
boy's hair, and he remembered if because he too had a 
mother. 

Soldiers do not like to display any emotion. Their rigid 
discipline has taught them to be calm and self-contained, 
and they carefully repress any signs of outward feeling. It 
is not shame. Only a desire to conceal from the world the 
aching heart. Walter Dickinson was no exception to this 
rule. The deeper feelings of his nature seldom, if ever, came 
to the surface. On the very eve of leaving for Cuba, with 
all the uncertainties of an active campaign staring him 
in the face, he could not bring himself to speak of it, and 



ADDRESSES 335 

it was only In the last letter before sailing from Tampa, that 
the mask was thrown aside and he penned a brief farewell 
to his brothers and sisters, commending to their tender love 
his wife. Not more than a dozen lines, but all the same it 
was the human cry of "the soldier heart buttoned over by 
the soldier coat." 

We have said that he was brave. When on that fatal 
morning he said, "Colonel, I want to go with you to-day," 
it was with full knowledge of the risks he ran. He had 
been in battle before. He had heard the spiteful hiss of 
bullets and had seen men struck down around him. But 
his keen sense of duty would not allow him to remain be- 
hind in safety when he might be of service as one of the 
Colonel's staff. There is a moral bravery which far trans- 
cends that of the battlefield. The one is of the earth, earthy. 
The other is of the spirit, heavenly. He possessed both. 
Whatever interfered with his usefulness must be overcome, 
and when once he had made up his mind, no power on 
earth could move him. In temptation oft, beset by enticing 
snares, his courage stood the test. The Good Book says: 
"He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a 
city." Verily he showed in this a moral force and rugged 
strength that clothes his life with nobility and beauty. 
The hero living for a principle. The hero dying for his coun- 
try. Each in itself beautiful — each the necessary com- 
plement of the other — together rounding out the perfect 
life of the man. Alas, that such men must die ! Alas, that 
they are snatched from us too soon ! 

Not like some drooping flower, that no man noticeth, 
But like the great branch of some stately tree 
Rent in a tempest, and flung down to death, 



336 HENRY HILL GOODELL 

Thick with green foliage — so that piteously 
Each passer-by that ruin shuddereth, 
And saith "The gap this branch hath left is wide ; 
The loss thereof can never be supplied." 

One sentence among the tributes to his memory has 
deeply stirred me. It runs thus: "Please accept my thanks 
as an army oflScer for your interest in and desire to pay 
tribute to the memory of a fellow officer who sacrificed his 
life in his country's service. It is the knowledge that friends 
at home do not forget, that encourages the soldier in the 
field and gives to him the feeling that he is truly a champion 
of the people and not a hireling. It is sentiment that wins 
our battles, not brute courage or love of carnage." 

That gallant army to which Walter Dickinson belonged 
and of which he was so justly proud is an army of trained 
and educated patriots. If "This war has taught us the 
moraUty of education," and "if the schools have fought 
it," none the less has it been fought and brought to a close 
by that little band, the regulars, — scholars, patriots and 
soldiers. The thinking bayonet, the scholarly sword, have 
gone hand in hand with the most marvelous exhibitions of 
courage and undying patriotism. An army of heroes — 
bearing the summer's heat and wintry cold without a mur- 
mur — enduring all things — suffering all things — with 
too often the certainty that politics and influence would 
play their part in preferment, rather than merit. Yet never 
for an instant swerving from the path of duty, though that 
duty led them unto death: officers leading their men and 
men vying with their officers : performing such prodigies of 
bravery that the foreign attache in breathless surprise ex- 
claimed: "This is not war, but it is magnificent." This is 



ADDRESSES 337 

the army we love and admire. This is the army we cherish 
in our hearts. Its Ust "is hke the tower of David, builded 
for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, 
all shields of mighty men." 

Out of the mass of letters received, two have seemed to 
me especially fitting with which to close this brief, imperfect 
sketch of his life and work. 

The General commanding the Division, Major-General 
H. W. Lawton, writes: "I knew Lieutenant Dickinson well 
for some years, and I knew him to be a patriot and a 
true soldier. And though there is no one who laments his 
untimely death more than I, still we have the happiness 
of knowing that he died like a nobleman and a soldier." 

Lieutenant-Colonel J. T. Haskell, commanding the Sev- 
enteenth U. S. Infantry, whose judgment is entitled to the 
highest consideration, sums up his traits of character in 
these words: "He was an honest, upright, honorable gentle- 
man without fear or reproach; he had all the qualifications 
of an excellent officer; well-educated, refined in his manners, 
prompt and energetic in the discharge of his duties, and 
very conscientious; his time was well spent with some good 
object in view; a great reader, very domestic in his habits; 
his own handiwork added much to the comfort and beauty 
of his army home which was always a delightful place for 
the guest. Unselfish, he was always pleased to contribute 
to the enjoyment of others. 

"He was beloved by the officers and enlisted men of 
his regiment, especially for his business ways and just treat- 
ment of all. An active man, he loved field-duty, and his 
bravery in the field was one of his most noticeable qualifica- 
tions. I loved him as a brother, and his loss to me will al- 



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